The travel unicorn landscape has been turned on its head in the past 18 months by the pandemic as well as the rise of public listings via special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC).
Travel and Mobility Tech (TNMT), which tracks companies in the space, recently revealed the growth of unicorns in travel from 22 in 2018 to 45 at the end of 2019 and 49 at the end of 2020.
The total is only 36 now.
While TNMT, the insight arm of Lufthansa Innovation Hub, had notables such as Airbnb, Gojek, Didi and Yanolja on the unicorn list two years ago, these companies have now gone public.
Others, a total of eight including Sonder, Grab, Traveloka and Tiket, have exited via SPAC.
Unicorn to SPAC
In late April, Sonder announced its plan to public by merging with SPAC company Gores Metropoulos II for a combined valuation of $2.2 billion.
Earlier in the month, Grab filed for its IPO via a SPAC with Altimeter.
Grab said it hoped to raise $4.5 billion as a result of the…