Hopper (company)

Online travel marketplace

HopperCompany type| Private

|

Industry| Travel
Founded| 2007; 17 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 that sells flights, hotels, rental cars, and short-term rentals.[1] The company is headquartered 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 travel planning tool with which a user could search for different places and activities.[4]

In 2012, Dakota Smith joined as a third co-founder 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 after developing its platform for over six years as a startup and new technology incubator.[4] During the development phase between 2007 and 2014, Hopper developed technology that crawled over two billion web pages for travel-related information and added it to Hopper database.[4] In April 2014, Seth Kugel published an article that covered Hopper's online research reports that gave details on how travelers could optimize their travel costs.[6] Hopper shifted its business model in May 2014, becoming a big data-driven website that helped travelers choose where to fly and when to buy their tickets.[2]

In January 2015, the 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 further develop its airfare prediction algorithm.[8] A year later, in 2017, the company expanded its platform by adding a hotel booking service.[9]

In October 2018, the company received an investment of $100 million in funding 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." Within the framework of this program, Hopper funds tree planting for every travel booking made through the company, aiming to offset carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. To facilitate this endeavor, Hopper has partnered with various nonprofit organizations, including Eden Reforestation Projects, which began in 2019, and Veritree, which commenced 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 home 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, named GDX Travel.[15]

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

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

## Technology and applications

[edit]

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

Hopper applies its technology to give its users some 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 its 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