September, 2024
I am thrilled to lead the $2.2m seed financing in Turneo alongside Alex Ferrara and join the company's board.
At Bessemer Venture Partners, we have a long history of investing in vertical software in the US, including successes in companies like Shopify, Toast and others. Since our arrival in Europe, we have been on the lookout for verticals that are ripe for digitization and commerce. However, given that Europe is an amalgamation of countries with regional nuances, there are just a handful of verticals that are ubiquitously addressable across the continent by a single digital platform. Hotels constitute one such vertical and is arguably the largest.
When we took a closer look at hotels and their businesses, we saw that rooms historically were the main revenue driver for hotels. However, traveller preferences have changed dramatically over the last few years, and selling only rooms isn’t enough. Hotels now aim to earn ancillary income, of almost half of their of total revenue, by selling experiences or activities - whether it is spa treatments or in-destination tours. We observed Turneo playing right into this market shift by building a platform for hotels to seamlessly create, manage and monetize rich experiences for guests.
The founding team stood out. Matija and Fran had collectively spent a decade in the travel industry. Hence, the founder-market-fit was obvious. We feel excited to partner with entrepreneurs who have spent years connecting the dots about the problem they are solving and then proven their ability to execute.
Congrats Matija and Fran. Alex and I look forward to joining you on this journey.
Did someone say Bessemer doesn’t lead seed rounds? 😉
