Temasek helps GetYourGuide’s journey to unicorn status

The online travel company GetYourGuide is poised to become Europe’s latest technology unicorn by securing more than $300m (£228m) in new funding from investors including one of Singapore’s sovereign wealth funds.

Sky News has learnt that Temasek Holdings is in advanced talks to invest about $50m in German-based GetYourGuide as part of a deal that will be announced in the next few weeks.

The Series E funding round will be led by the SoftBank Vision Fund, the giant technology investor which holds stakes in Uber and WeWork.

Sources said that GetYourGuide would be valued at well over $1bn following the fundraising, catapulting it into the ranks of so-called ‘unicorns’ which have 10-figure valuations.

The company has become a powerhouse online booking platform for travel activities such as tours and activity tickets, charging a commission on each sale.

To date, GetYourGuide has sold more than 20 million tickets to travellers from 170 countries.

It now has a workforce of 500 people, split between a Berlin headquarters and sales offices in 14 countries.

Existing investors in the company include KKR, the private equity firm, Highland Europe and Battery Ventures.

GetYourGuide last raised money in November 2017, when it announced a £75m funding round.

Johannes Reck, its chief executive, said at the time: “It’s our goal to significantly disrupt the in-destination travel experience in the years ahead, and the financing we’ve raised from both new and existing investors represents a vote of confidence in our progress toward capturing the massive market opportunity before us.”

The precise sum being raised by GetYourGuide from SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Temasek and other investors was unclear on Wednesday, but sources said it would be in excess of $300m.

That would make it among the largest of such single injections of capital into a European tech start-up.

Temasek and GetYourGuide declined to comment.