A 5-year-old Philadelphia software startup co-founded by a Comcast Business alum has raised $3 million in funding to fuel growth and expand its reach.
HopSkip's seed round, which closed last week, was led by Silicon Valley-based Conductive Ventures.
The software-as-a-service company is helmed by co-founder and CEO Sean Whalin, who started HopSkip after managing strategic initiatives at Comcast Business for four years. He founded the startup in 2019 along with his brother Luke Whalin and Greg Leizerowicz.
HopSkip provides a streamlined platform for organizations looking to book group stays and events at hotels. Its focus is specifically on corporate events.
The company already has more than 1,000 event planners on board who can use its platform to book blocks at some 150,000 hotels across North America, Europe and the Caribbean. Its roster of hotels on the platform includes major brands like Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton.
Whalin's goal with the new funding is to broaden HopSkip's geographic reach as well as how customers can book their events. That includes branching out into venues beyond hotels.
Currently, event planners on HopSkip can issue requests for proposals to host their corporate gatherings, providing specific details and logistics about desired food and beverage options, meeting space requirements, room blocks and other needs. Their event planning counterparts at hotels can then use the platform to submit a proposal to host the events.
To join the platform, company event planners pay anywhere from $1,200 annually for the "essential" model to $1,800 per year for the premium model. Premium membership includes access to HopSkip's contracting academy, which trains individuals on how best to secure contracts. It also allows planners to view and compare more proposals from hotels and also gives them access to an account manager.
Hotels can join the platform at two different levels. The essential model is free or they can sign up at the pro level for $4,000 a year. The latter provides preferred search placement and allows hotels to target and publish promotions for events and bid on leads that comparable hotels have received.
With the fresh funding, Whalin is looking to further expand the model. To date, planners on HopSkip have been restricted to booking group stays and events at hotels, but that will soon change. HopSkip plans to add convention centers to its offerings in the U.S. and Canada later this year. From there, HopSkip could look to add other "unique venues" to the platform, Whalin said.
Whalin also has plans to broaden HopSkip's reach to other parts of the world. Over the next three to 12 months, HopSkip will build out its presence in the Asia-Pacific region through new hotel partnerships.
He sees those moves as a way to continue the growth HopSkip has experienced since its inception in 2019. The startup has seen consistent growth in that time, tripling revenue each year.
"We're well over the million-dollar annual recurring revenue mark and expect to continue that kind of growth for the foreseeable future," Whalin said.
Prior to the seed round, HopSkip raised about $900,000 in pre-seed funds from family, friends and angel investors. The startup began exploring a venture capital infusion in mid-January in what Whalin said was a move "purely for growth."
"It's to triple down on investment in the platform," Whalin said. "What I mean by that is we see a lot of opportunities and there's a lot of work to be done in our space that we feel like we've just started to scratch the surface."
HopSkip currently has 10 employees, including contractors, but Whalin said the startup is looking to add as many as eight more over the next six to nine months.
