Hopper (company)

Online travel marketplace

Hopper

Company type| Private
Industry| Travel
Founded| 2007; 18 years ago (2007)
Founders|

* Frederic Lalonde
* Joost Ouwerkerk
* Dakota Smith

Headquarters|

Montreal

Canada

Area served

| Worldwide

Key people

| Frederic Lalonde (CEO)
Products|

* Hopper App
* HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions)

Revenue|  US$700 million (2023)

Number of employees

| 1,200 (2023)
Website| hopper.com

Hopper, Inc. is a travel booking app and online travel marketplace for flights, hotels, rental cars, and short-term house rentals.[1] The company has its main offices in Montreal, Canada and Boston, Massachusetts.[2]

## History

[edit]

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 planning tool for travel destinations and activities.[4]

In 2012, Dakota Smith joined and the company received $12 million in Series B funding from investment funds such as OMERS and Atlas Venture.[5]

In January 2014, Hopper was launched.[4] During the development phase, Hopper developed technology that crawled two billion web pages for travel-related information and added it to a database.[4] In April 2014, a New York Times article described how Hopper's online research reports could help travelers cut their travel costs.[6] Hopper shifted its business model in May 2014 to focus on using big data to optimize the ways travelers could choose where to fly and when to buy tickets.[2]

In January 2015, an app was launched with functions such as flight price prediction and real-time price monitoring.[7]

In March 2016, $62 million was received in funding to improve its airfare prediction algorithm.[8] A year later, the company expanded its platform by adding a hotel booking service.[9]

In October 2018, the company received an investment of $100 million to expand its services internationally.[10]

In late 2019, the company added fintech-based functions designed to help users optimize their travel costs.[11] In the same year, Hopper launched a sustainability initiative called Hopper Trees. Hopper funds tree planting for every travel booking made through the company, aiming to offset carbon dioxide emissions. To facilitate this, Hopper has partnered with nonprofit organizations, including Eden Reforestation Projects, which began in 2019, and Veritree, in 2023.[12][13]

In March 2021, the company became a unicorn after receiving an investment of $170 million from Capital One.[14][15] In August 2021, it raised an additional $175 million in a series G funding round led by GPI Capital.[11]

In January 2022, Hopper Homes was launched to provide short-term house rentals.[16][17] A month later, in February 2022, the company was valued at $5 billion after a $35 million secondary share sale.[18] It received $96 million in additional investment from Capital One in November 2022.[19]

### Acquisition history

[edit]

In late 2019, Hopper acquired a Colombian travel company, GDX Travel.[15]

In October 2021, the company bought PlacePass, a Boston-based online booking service.[20] In the same year, Hopper took control of a trip-planning service, Journy.[21]

In February 2022, a Paris-based merchandising services provider, Smooss, was acquired.[22]

## Technology and applications

[edit]

Hopper uses machine learning algorithms to dynamically change the price of its fintech offers, which are designed to provide flexibility for users.[23] Its price-forecasting algorithm, which uses historical data to predict flight's price, was designed in 2010 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[24][25]

Hopper applies its technology to give users additional fintech functions based on historical data, including "price freezing to protect against pricing volatility",[26] "cancelling or changing flight bookings at short notice",[27][28] or if a flight is delayed for any reason, changing it without overcharging.[29]

## HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions)

[edit]

In 2021, the company launched a business-to-business initiative HTS,[19][21] where enterprises can use its white-label travel portals or distribute Hopper's travel and fintech products.[19]

Hopper's customers include Capital One, where Hopper develops its travel booking portal, Capital One Travel.[19]

## See also

[edit]

* Online marketplace
* Expedia
* Airbnb

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Elaine, Glusac (17 October 2022). "The Best Time to Book Holiday Travel? 'Basically Now.'". The New York Times.
2. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b 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. ^ "Veritree Launches Restorative Coalition: A Bold Initiative to Unite and Empower Businesses Committed to Nature Restoration". Yahoo Finance. 19 September 2023.
14. ^ "Hopper Travel App Reaches Unicorn Status After Capitol One". Bloomberg. 24 March 2021.
15. ^ a b Mathews, Jessica (14 September 2021). "How travel unicorn Hopper went from mass layoffs to doubling revenue". Fortune.
16. ^ Ekstein, Nikki (27 January 2022). "Goldman-Backed Hopper Muscles Into Airbnb's Rental Territory". Bloomberg.
17. ^ Rutherford, Sam (28 January 2022). "Hopper wants to challenge Airbnb with short-term vacation rentals". Engadget.
18. ^ Lunden, Ingrid (3 February 2022). "Travel booking app Hopper upgrades its valuation to $5B on secondary sale". TechCrunch.
19. ^ a b c d Wiggers, Kyle (7 November 2022). "Travel app Hopper raises $96M from Capital One to double down on social commerce". TechCrunch.
20. ^ "Hopper acquires experience-booking service based in Boston". Boston Globe. 19 October 2021.
21. ^ a b "Hopper". Travel Weekly.
22. ^ 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.
23. ^ Schaal, Dennis (21 July 2021). "Hopper Sells Travel But Its Fintech Hedging Drives the Growth". Skift.
24. ^ Sawers, Paul (21 July 2016). "Hopper's airfare-prediction app just got a whole lot more useful". VentureBeat.
25. ^ Liao, Shannon (25 October 2017). "Hopper can now predict cheaper hotel booking times in addition to flights". The Verge.
26. ^ Silk, Robert (7 June 2022). "Hopper adds new price freeze, cancellation, and air protection options". Travel Weekly.
27. ^ O’Neill, Sean (17 August 2021). "Online Travel Hopper's Metamorphosis From Flight Selling to Fintech". Skift.
28. ^ Malik, Aisha (7 June 2022). "Travel app Hopper launches new offerings to give users more flexibility before and during trips". TechCrunch.
29. ^ Silk, Robert (19 June 2022). "Hopper is building its 'super app' origin story now". Travel Weekly.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website