Consumer/News/ Tiger Global backs ‘Shopify for experiences’ as events and travel industries bounce back After a torrid couple of years for the sector, the experience business is back in business. By Kai Nicol-Schwarz 8 December 2021 Easol Founders Lisa & Ben Simpson Easol Founders Lisa & Ben Simpson \Consumer Meet the creator of Polytopia, Elon Musk’s favourite video game By Tim Smith in Barcelona 3 May 2022 Consumer/News/ Tiger Global backs ‘Shopify for experiences’ as events and travel industries bounce back After a torrid couple of years for the sector, the experience business is back in business. By Kai Nicol-Schwarz 8 December 2021 Easol, an ecommerce platform for businesses selling experiences, has just raised $25m in a Series A round led by Tiger Global. It’s the 29th European startup the US VC giant has backed this year, following 12 months of aggressive investment in the region’s tech talent — but the first primarily focused on live, in-person events and travel. The raise is further indication of VC’s increasing confidence in the events and travel industries, and Easol is the latest startup to join the well-funded party investors are throwing for the sectors. Just last month, hospitality data startup OTA Insights bagged $80m, Düsseldorf-based events ticketing company Vivenu raised $50m and events platform Feast It snapped up €5m. For Easol’s part, this round is its second of the year — following a $4.5m raise in March — and it wasn’t a difficult sell to VCs in the current climate, says founder and CEO Ben Simpson. “[Events and travel] are enormous markets and we’ve grown at an incredible rate, so there’s been a lot of investor interest,” he tells Sifted. Since its seed round in 2018 Easol says its customer base has increased by nearly 1000% Easol is a one-stop-shop platform for experience businesses that allows them to build a website, sell events and travel packages and manage customers. The startup works with companies across the globe, from yoga retreats in Africa to festivals in the jungles of Costa Rica. Since closing its seed round in 2018 the company says its customer base has increased by nearly 1000% and is forecast to treble this growth in 2022; the $25m raise will be used to invest heavily in developing its product and expanding its team. Easol is playing the long game, and regardless of what happens in the near future Simpson believes the travel and events industries will go from strength to strength in the years to come. Consumer desire to spend money on experiences isn’t going anywhere, and will “exponentially increase as a result of what’s happened,” he says. “Our view has always been firmly on that and not on any short-term wins.” But that doesn’t mean that scaling quickly isn’t on the agenda — and if there’s one thing we’ve learnt from the past year in European VC it’s that startups can raise megarounds and hit crazy valuations in no time at all. Simpson is coy about future raises — as you have to be when running a business that revolves around in-person events during Covid times — but tells Sifted that lobbying for more funds for the warchest over the next 12 months is “definitely possible”. Kai Nicol-Schwarz is a reporter at Sifted. He covers healthtech and community journalism, and tweets from @NicolSchwarzK Related Articles Petcube is building a smartphone for your pet By Maija Palmer Click here to read more The fintech offering free API that could help millions access credit Sponsored by Microsoft Click here to read more Europe’s Apple competitor Nothing raises $70m By Eleanor Warnock Click here to read more This startup built a €250k edible-insect farm inside an old mine — with its own sauna By Kim Darrah Click here to read more Most Read 1 \Consumer Building a billion dollar business by fixing clothes 2 \Startup Life What’s it like being a startup founder over 40? 3 Member \Venture Capital The 10 fastest growing Estonian startups in the past 12 months 4 \Startup Life Startups now have another alternative to VC: growth through debt 5 \Startup Life Ravio hopes its transparent salary data can solve your hiring woes Join the conversation Subscribe Notify of new follow-up comments new replies to my comments
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