 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Travel |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Frederic Lalonde (CEO) |
| Products |
|
| Revenue |  US$700 million (2023) |
Number of employees | 1,200 (2023) |
| Website | hopper |
Hopper, Inc. is a travel booking app and online travel marketplace for flights, hotels, rental cars, and short-term house rentals. [1] The company has its main offices in Montreal, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts. [2]
Hopper was founded in April 2007 by Frederic Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk, both of whom were executives at Expedia Group. [3] [4] It started as a planning tool for travel destinations and activities. [4]
In 2012, Dakota Smith joined and the company received $12 million in Series B funding from investment funds such as OMERS and Atlas Venture. [5]
In January 2014, Hopper was launched. [4] During the development phase, Hopper developed technology that crawled two billion web pages for travel-related information and added it to a database. [4] In April 2014, a New York Times article described how Hopper's online research reports could help travelers cut their travel costs. [6] Hopper shifted its business model in May 2014 to focus on using big data to optimize the ways travelers could choose where to fly and when to buy tickets. [2]
In January 2015, an app was launched with functions such as flight price prediction and real-time price monitoring. [7]
In March 2016, $62 million was received in funding to improve its airfare prediction algorithm. [8] A year later, the company expanded its platform by adding a hotel booking service. [9]
In October 2018, the company received an investment of $100 million to expand its services internationally. [10]
In late 2019, the company added fintech-based functions designed to help users optimize their travel costs. [11] In the same year, Hopper launched a sustainability initiative called Hopper Trees. Hopper funds tree planting for every travel booking made through the company, aiming to offset carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. To facilitate this, Hopper has partnered with nonprofit organizations, including Eden Reforestation Projects, which began in 2019, and Veritree, in 2023. [12] [13]
In March 2021, the company became a unicorn after receiving an investment of $170 million from Capital One. [14] [15] In August 2021, it raised an additional $175 million in a series G funding round led by GPI Capital. [11]
In January 2022, Hopper Homes was launched to provide short-term house rentals. [16] [17] A month later, in February 2022, the company was valued at $5 billion after a $35 million secondary share sale. [18] It received $96 million in additional investment from Capital One in November 2022. [19]
In late 2019, Hopper acquired a Colombian travel company, GDX Travel. [15]
In October 2021, the company bought PlacePass, a Boston-based online booking service. [20] In the same year, Hopper took control of a trip-planning service, Journy. [21]
In February 2022, a Paris-based merchandising services provider, Smooss, was acquired. [22]
Hopper uses machine learning algorithms to dynamically change the price of its fintech offers, which are designed to provide flexibility for users. [23] Its price-forecasting algorithm, which uses historical data to predict flight's price, was designed in 2010 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [24] [25]
Hopper applies its technology to give users additional fintech functions based on historical data, including "price freezing to protect against pricing volatility", [26] "cancelling or changing flight bookings at short notice", [27] [28] or if a flight is delayed for any reason, changing it without overcharging. [29]
In 2021, the company launched a business-to-business initiative HTS, [19] [21] where enterprises can use its white-label travel portals or distribute Hopper's travel and fintech products. [19]
Hopper's customers include Capital One, where Hopper develops its travel booking portal, Capital One Travel. [19]