Traveltech Turneo raises €2M to enhance experiential hospitality

Turneo, a traveltech startup specialising in experiential hospitality, has announced the closing of a €2 million seed funding round. The round was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with additional backing from Underline Ventures.

This investment is set to propel Turneo’s mission to transform the hospitality sector by enabling leading hotels worldwide to offer exceptional in-destination activities to their guests. The funding will support team expansion, market entry into new regions, and key product enhancements.

Established in 2022, Turneo provides a platform for hotels to manage all their activity offerings in one place. It allows guests to browse and book activities and transfers directly through the hotel's website or app. Meanwhile, hotels benefit from a unified system for managing their entire portfolio of in-house and partner activities. This platform facilitates creating and publishing new activities, building partnerships with local providers, and gaining insights through activity data and guest reviews.  

“Travellers plan and book activities before arriving at their destination”, said Fran Kauzlaric, Co-Founder of Turneo. “With Turneo, hotels can finally showcase their destinations and manage the activity offering to their guests. This means happier guests, with additional revenue and less operational hassle for hotels.”

Data they are seeing from the 2024 Europe summer season is fantastic: guests who booked activities gave hotels on average 8% higher ratings on review sites, and over two-thirds of guests who booked activities at hotels using the platform did so online.  Recent years have seen significant growth in the experiences and hotel activities market which is projected to reach $463 billion by 2030. Turneo predicts $172 billion will flow through hotels.

“We are thrilled to have the support of such incredible investors as Bessemer Venture Partners and Underline Ventures,” said Matija Marijan, CEO and co-founder of Turneo. “This funding validates the huge opportunity as well as our vision, and it enables us to scale our operations, enhance our technology, and form critical partnerships so that we can empower more hotels to deliver amazing activities to their guests.”

Bessemer Venture Partners, a global leader in early-stage venture capital, recognised Turneo’s potential to disrupt the travel industry, following earlier investments in the likes of Shopify and Toast, as well as household names such as LinkedIn, Pinterest and Skype. Beyond just capital, their investment places Turneo at the forefront of the hospitality industry’s transformation, with the fund’s ability to leverage its expertise to guide the company towards becoming the industry leader.

"Historically, rooms were the main revenue driver for hotels. However, traveller preferences have changed dramatically over the last few years, and only selling rooms isn’t enough," said Aditya Nidmarti, investor at Bessemer Venture Partners and newly appointed Board Director at Turneo. "Turneo is playing right into this market shift by building a platform for hotels to seamlessly create, manage and monetise rich experiences for guests - whether it is spa treatments or in-destination tours."

“Turneo is uniquely positioned to transform how people experience travel and how hotels elevate destinations they operate in,” said Alex Ferrara, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, who previously led Shopify’s Series A round in 2010. “The company's focus on destination management and the role hospitality companies have in it is exactly what the industry needs. We see Turneo’s potential to revolutionise in-destination experiences.”

The VC fund, known for its pivotal role in Shopify’s growth, sees Turneo as the next major disruptor in the hospitality tech space, positioning the company to lead the vertical software revolution in experiential travel.