TripAdvisor rival GetYourGuide nears $2 billion valuation as it raises fresh funds to invest in A.I.

cnbc.com:

German online travel startup GetYourGuide raised $194 million from investors, hoping to capitalize on a bump in demand for travel services in the summer, further an expansion into the U.S., and invest in large language models and other artificial intelligence tools.

The Berlin-based company said Thursday it had raised the funding through a mix of equity and debt, with $85 million of equity investment being led by U.S. asset management firm Blue Pool Capital.

The investment values the company at nearly $2 billion, up from GetYourGuide's last publicly-disclosed valuation of $1.4 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter. Existing investors KKR and Temasek invested again in this round.

The debt portion of the deal was led by UniCredit and also backed by BNP Paribas, Citibank and KfW. Total investment in GetYourGuide, including both equity and debt, now stands at just over $1 billion.

GetYourGuide's product differs from those offered by some other major players in the online travel space. Rather than advertise hotels, flights and other forms of transportation, GetYourGuide sells its users experiences and things to do in unexplored places.

These experiences are offered through third-party suppliers on its platform, with GetYourGuide taking a commission on each booking. 

The company has seen a massive jump in demand for its platform with travel returning back to normal following the ending of Covid-19 restrictions and the resumption of normal cross-border transportation.

Johannes Reck, the CEO and co-founder of GetYourGuide, said the company had seen its revenues erased during the early days of the pandemic — for multiple consecutive quarters the company made no revenue whatsoever, he said. 

«We were severely