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Travel: Heartcore Consumer Technology Trends 2021
The pandemic triggered the worst crisis in travel industry history…
Estimated impact of COVID tourism-- net loss of 900M international arrivals.
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…and the longterm effects on the market are still uncertain.
”…as executives conduct more business remotely, going back to inperson meetings and pitches seems less urgent. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Indian conglomerate Tata Sons said in an interview with New York Times that he used to fly from India to the Unites States to pitch a $50,000 project. But recently, he said, his firm’s consultancy business closed $2B worth of deals in “five or six Zoom calls.”
New York Times, Oct 20, 2020
The question isn't if travel will come back, but when and how?
Historically, travel is highly-correlated with GDP growth. For the pandemic, vaccination rates are expected to be leading indicator. IMF expects a global recovery to begin in 2021.
In previous recoveries, corporate lagged leisure travel.
Even so, full market recovery is unlikely before 2023.
Green shoots: nascent recovery in US leisure…
Limited US lockdowns paint a rosier picture of the next two years. Leisure seems more flexible than corporate.
… and strong recovery in domestic China.
The post-pandemic months are likely to be the fastest-growing in the travel industry history.
Pent-up demand: expect sharp increase in travel as soon as restrictions are eased.
Prices will spike as inventory is spun back up (in the UK-UAE example, prices increase 20% overnight)
Marketplaces should benefit from the unpredictability of demand.
Flexibility on corridors means agility in recovery.
Unlike airlines and hotels, online travel marketplaces can map to variable source and destination markets rapidly
Marketplace for alternative accommodation (and likely OTA)
$7.9B Raised (incl. IPO)
Heartcore Portfolio
Marketplace for in-destination tours & activities.
$790M Raised
Property manager for alternative accommodations
$635M raised
New models
1: The rise of the megatrend outdoor and adventure travel.
Key focus of recent investment rounds is on expanding the target demo and on bringing new supply online.
Peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace.
$150M Raised
Campervan rental company
Undisclosed amount raised
Campsite booking service
$97.5M Raised
Fleet of tech-enabled campervans
€3.5M Raised
2: Professionalization of marketplace merchants.
Airbnb's Professional class
Continued fundraising for startups professionalizing supply on Airbnb
Marketplace for furnished mid to high end apartments.
$553M Raised
Transforming upscale apartments into tech-enabled hotel suites
$36.5M Raised
Furnished upscale apartments for short and extended stays.
$13.5M Raised
Heartcore Portfolio
Professional supply for mid-term rental.
Undisclosed funding amount
Given competitive intensity, are there any white spaces left in travel?
What we are looking for: Request for startups
Google harvests intent, but no top of funnel online player has emerged: we are looking for travel media companies
Loyalty is a key profit driver and OTAs including Google are too expensive: we are looking for membership travel startups, ideally with subscription
Travel is borderless: we are looking for decentralized web companies focused on the end user that make use of crypto/tokens to make international travel easier and more enjoyable
And of course: the biggest travel industry story of the year…
Airbnb has built a powerful new incumbent that's looking set to become a full-fledged OTA.
Airbnb valuation over time
$0.6M Seed at $2.5M (YC, Sequoia)
$7.2M Series A at $70M (Greylock)
$112M Series B at $1.3B (a16z)
$200M Series C at $2.9B (Founders Fund)
$475M Series D at $10.5B (TPG)
$1.5M Series E at $25B (General Atlantic)
$1B Debt at $30B (JPM)
$1B Series F at $31B (TCV)
$1B Debt at $18B (Fidelity)
$3.5B IPO at $86.5B Mkt Cap
Mkt Cap Feb 2021 $128B
