Hopper
TypePrivate
IndustryTravel
Founded2007 (2007)
Founders
  • Frederic Lalonde
  • Joost Ouwerkerk
  • Dakota Smith
Headquarters
Montreal
,
Canada
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Frederic Lalonde (CEO)
Products
  • Hopper App
  • Hopper Cloud
Websitehopper.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]

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 Hopper 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] Specifically, during the initial 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, Hopper launched its app with functions such as flight price prediction and real-time price monitoring.[7]

In March 2016, Hopper received $62 million 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, Hopper received an investment of $100 million in funding to expand its services internationally.[10]

In late 2019, Hopper expanded its services and added fintech-based functions designed to help users optimize their travel costs.[11] In the same year, it started a sustainability program, named Hopper Trees, in partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects, to plant trees for every airfare purchase and two for every hotel room booking in order to offset carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.[12]

In March 2021, Hopper became a unicorn after receiving an investment of $170 million from Capital One.[13][14] In August 2021, Hopper raised an additional $175 million in a series G funding round led by GPI Capital.[11]

In January 2022, Hopper launched Hopper Homes to provide short-term home rentals.[15][16] A month later, in February 2022, Hopper was valued at $5 billion after a $35 million secondary share sale.[17] It received $96 million in additional investment from Capital One in November 2022.[18]

Acquisition history

In late 2019, Hopper acquired a Colombian travel company, named GDX Travel.[14]

In October 2021, the company acquired PlacePass, a Boston-based online booking service.[19] In the same year, Hopper also acquired a trip-planning service, Journy.[20]

In February 2022, Hopper acquired a Paris-based merchandising services provider, Smooss for an undisclosed amount.[21]

Technology and applications

Hopper uses machine learning algorithms extensively to dynamically change the price of its fintech offers, which are designed to provide some flexibility for users.[22] Initially, its price-forecasting algorithm that uses historical data to predict flight's price, was designed in 2010 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[23][24]

Hopper applies its technology to give its users some additional fintech functions based on historical data, including "price freezing to protect against pricing volatility",[25] "cancelling or changing flight bookings at short notice",[26] switching hotel after check-in and replacing it with another hotel,[27] or if a flight is delayed for any reason, changing it without overcharging.[28]

Hopper Cloud

In 2021, Hopper launched its business-to-business initiative called Hopper Cloud,[18][20] where enterprises can use its white-label travel portals or distribute Hopper's travel and fintech products.[18]

Hopper's customers include Capital One, where Hopper develops its travel booking portal, Capital One Travel.[18]

See also

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. ↑ "Hopper Travel App Reaches Unicorn Status After Capitol One". Bloomberg. 24 March 2021.
  14. 1 2 Mathews, Jessica (14 September 2021). "How travel unicorn Hopper went from mass layoffs to doubling revenue". Fortune.
  15. ↑ Ekstein, Nikki (27 January 2022). "Goldman-Backed Hopper Muscles Into Airbnb's Rental Territory". Bloomberg.
  16. ↑ Rutherford, Sam (28 January 2022). "Hopper wants to challenge Airbnb with short-term vacation rentals". Engadget.
  17. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (3 February 2022). "Travel booking app Hopper upgrades its valuation to $5B on secondary sale". TechCrunch.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Wiggers, Kyle (7 November 2022). "Travel app Hopper raises $96M from Capital One to double down on social commerce". TechCrunch.
  19. ↑ "Hopper acquires experience-booking service based in Boston". Boston Globe. 19 October 2021.
  20. 1 2 "Hopper". Travel Weekly.
  21. ↑ 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.
  22. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (21 July 2021). "Hopper Sells Travel But Its Fintech Hedging Drives the Growth". Skift.
  23. ↑ Sawers, Paul (21 July 2016). "Hopper's airfare-prediction app just got a whole lot more useful". VentureBeat.
  24. ↑ Liao, Shannon (25 October 2017). "Hopper can now predict cheaper hotel booking times in addition to flights". The Verge.
  25. ↑ Silk, Robert (7 June 2022). "Hopper adds new price freeze, cancellation, and air protection options". Travel Weekly.
  26. ↑ O’Neill, Sean (17 August 2021). "Online Travel Hopper's Metamorphosis From Flight Selling to Fintech". Skift.
  27. ↑ Malik, Aisha (7 June 2022). "Travel app Hopper launches new offerings to give users more flexibility before and during trips". TechCrunch.
  28. ↑ Silk, Robert (19 June 2022). "Hopper is building its 'super app' origin story now". Travel Weekly.
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