Last minute hotel booking app HotelTonight has closed a $37 million Series E round of funding — having last raised in early 2014. The 2010 founded company has raised a total of $117.69M to date, according to CrunchBase, with a valuation pegged at $463M.
HotelTonight has shifted its model to accommodate bookings up to a week ahead. It also went through a period of belt-tightening in summer 2015 in a bid to get to profitability, cutting as much as a fifth of staff and slashing marketing budgets as it sought to reduce its millions per month burn rate having faced tougher questions from VCs about its finances when CEO Sam Shank set out to try to raise.
That push to achieve profitability (which it did in April 2016) appears to have paid off — with the new Series E financing led by existing HotelTonight investor Accel Partners, along with new investors RSC Capital, Founder’s Circle and Aspect Ventures joining the round. Existing investors Battery Ventures, US Venture Partners, GGV Capital, Coatue Management and First Round Capital also participated.
It is also now eyeing an IPO — possibly by late 2017, with Shank telling Bloomberg last summer that’s the “next path” for the business.
HotelTonight said today it plans to use the new funding for working capital as it continues to grow, noting it took more than $300M in gross booking volume and recorded more than 100 percent year over year revenue growth. In a statement Shank said the capital infusion will give it “tremendous operational flexibility” to support continued expansion.
At this point HotelTonight has more than 25,000 hotel partners in 1,700 cities, across more than 30 countries putting unbooked room inventory on its platform. It’s looking to grow this global footprint — and is also hiring again.
Features it credits with helping its growth include a new location-based pricing feature that offers geo-based discounts; a refreshed loyalty program offering even deeper discounts for repeat bookers; and the expansion of its in-app message-based concierge service — to cover 50 more markets. It’s also been targeting strategic partnerships to grow users, such as one inked with Chelsea Football Club this year, and says it will unveil others soon.
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