Hopper (company)

Last updated
Hopper
Company type Private
Industry Travel
Founded2007;17 years ago (2007)
Founders
  • Frederic Lalonde
  • Joost Ouwerkerk
  • Dakota Smith
Headquarters
Montreal
,
Canada
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Frederic Lalonde (CEO)
Products
  • Hopper App
  • HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions)
Website hopper.com

Hopper, Inc. is a travel booking app and online travel marketplace that sells flights, hotels, rental cars, and short-term rentals. [1] The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts. [2]

Contents

History

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 travel planning tool with which a user could search for different places and activities. [4]

In 2012, Dakota Smith joined as a third co-founder 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 after developing its platform for over six years as a startup and new technology incubator. [4] During the development phase between 2007 and 2014, Hopper developed technology that crawled over two billion web pages for travel-related information and added it to Hopper database. [4] In April 2014, Seth Kugel published an article that covered Hopper's online research reports that gave details on how travelers could optimize their travel costs. [6] Hopper shifted its business model in May 2014, becoming a big data-driven website that helped travelers choose where to fly and when to buy their tickets. [2]

In January 2015, the 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 further develop its airfare prediction algorithm. [8] A year later, in 2017, the company expanded its platform by adding a hotel booking service. [9]

In October 2018, the company received an investment of $100 million in funding 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." Within the framework of this program, Hopper funds tree planting for every travel booking made through the company, aiming to offset carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. To facilitate this endeavor, Hopper has partnered with various nonprofit organizations, including Eden Reforestation Projects, which began in 2019, and Veritree, which commenced 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 home 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]

Acquisition history

In late 2019, Hopper acquired a Colombian travel company, named GDX Travel. [15]

In October 2021, the company acquired PlacePass, a Boston-based online booking service. [20] In the same year, Hopper also acquired a trip-planning service, Journy. [21]

In February 2022, a Paris-based merchandising services provider, Smooss, was aquired, for an undisclosed amount. [22]

Technology and applications

Hopper uses machine learning algorithms to dynamically change the price of its fintech offers, which are designed to provide some flexibility for users. [23] Initially, its price-forecasting algorithm that uses historical data to predict flight's price, was designed in 2010 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [24] [25]

Hopper applies its technology to give its users some 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]

HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions)

In 2021, the company launched its 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]

See also

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Elaine, Glusac (17 October 2022). "The Best Time to Book Holiday Travel? 'Basically Now.'". The New York Times .
  2. 1 2 Hoefling, Brian (5 October 2014). "Hopper aiming for more transparent travel search". Boston Business Journal.
  3. ↑ Tan, Gillian (30 November 2021). "Travel Startup Hopper Seeks $200 Million in Pre-IPO Debt". Bloomberg.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Perez, Sarah (20 January 2014). "Why Travel Startup Hopper, Founded in 2007, Took So Long To "Launch"". TechCrunch.
  5. ↑ Perez, Sarah (15 August 2012). "Founded By Former Expedia Engineers, Stealthy Travel Startup Hopper Closes $12 Million Series B". TechCrunch.
  6. ↑ Kugel, Seth. "Crunching the Numbers to find the Best Airfare". The New York Times.
  7. ↑ Perez, Sarah (28 January 2015). "Hopper's New Travel App Tells You The Best Time To Fly". TechCrunch.
  8. ↑ Hinchliffe, Emma (15 December 2016). "Hopper raises $62 million in its bid to take over travel". Mashable.
  9. ↑ Sawers, Paul (25 October 2017). "Hopper expands its airfare-prediction smarts to hotels". VentureBeat.
  10. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (3 October 2018). "Hopper raises $100M more for its AI-based travel app, now valued at $780M". TechCrunch.
  11. 1 2 Sawers, Paul (17 August 2021). "AI-powered travel tech platform Hopper raises $175M". VentureBeat.
  12. ↑ "App di viaggi pianta un albero quando acquisti un volo". Quotidiano.net . 24 January 2020.
  13. ↑ "Veritree Launches Restorative Coalition: A Bold Initiative to Unite and Empower Businesses Committed to Nature Restoration". Yahoo Finance. 19 September 2023.
  14. ↑ "Hopper Travel App Reaches Unicorn Status After Capitol One". Bloomberg. 24 March 2021.
  15. 1 2 Mathews, Jessica (14 September 2021). "How travel unicorn Hopper went from mass layoffs to doubling revenue". Fortune .
  16. ↑ Ekstein, Nikki (27 January 2022). "Goldman-Backed Hopper Muscles Into Airbnb's Rental Territory". Bloomberg.
  17. ↑ Rutherford, Sam (28 January 2022). "Hopper wants to challenge Airbnb with short-term vacation rentals". Engadget .
  18. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (3 February 2022). "Travel booking app Hopper upgrades its valuation to $5B on secondary sale". TechCrunch .
  19. 1 2 3 4 Wiggers, Kyle (7 November 2022). "Travel app Hopper raises $96M from Capital One to double down on social commerce". TechCrunch.
  20. ↑ "Hopper acquires experience-booking service based in Boston". Boston Globe . 19 October 2021.
  21. 1 2 "Hopper". Travel Weekly.
  22. ↑ Yates, Andrew (24 February 2022). "Tech update: Embracing a 4-day work week, crop planning on the farm goes digital and other news". Toronto Star .
  23. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (21 July 2021). "Hopper Sells Travel But Its Fintech Hedging Drives the Growth". Skift .
  24. ↑ Sawers, Paul (21 July 2016). "Hopper's airfare-prediction app just got a whole lot more useful". VentureBeat.
  25. ↑ Liao, Shannon (25 October 2017). "Hopper can now predict cheaper hotel booking times in addition to flights". The Verge .
  26. ↑ Silk, Robert (7 June 2022). "Hopper adds new price freeze, cancellation, and air protection options". Travel Weekly.
  27. ↑ O’Neill, Sean (17 August 2021). "Online Travel Hopper's Metamorphosis From Flight Selling to Fintech". Skift.
  28. ↑ Malik, Aisha (7 June 2022). "Travel app Hopper launches new offerings to give users more flexibility before and during trips". TechCrunch.
  29. ↑ Silk, Robert (19 June 2022). "Hopper is building its 'super app' origin story now". Travel Weekly.
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