bookingkit Receives Fresh Capital, Müller Medien on Board as New Investor

bookingkit, Germany’s leading SaaS solution for digitalized tours and activities, into which the HTGF became the first investor in 2015, announces today that it has raised a single-digit million amount in Series B funding. Müller Medien has been acquired as a further investor. The fresh capital will be invested to maintain the rapid growth of the company and expanding its team.

This round of funding was led by HTGF, Intermedia Ventures and business angel Robert Kabs, and has been joined by new investor Müller Medien, a Nuremberg-based media company. bookingkit will use the fresh capital to strengthen its position as the “tours and activities industry’s leading digitalizer” in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as to recruit additional experts for its team.

Michael Oschmann, CEO of Müller Medien, is pleased about the new cooperation with the successful team of bookingkit and the interesting co-enterprises: “The demand for online bookable experiences is enormous and is rising continuously. It’s a fast-growing and very exciting market to extend the benefits of traditional directories. However, the challenge for operators is to develop solutions for delivering services to customers: Many small, local companies are still working entirely offline and they’re missing out on the opportunity to be a part of this digital shift and generating revenue. This is precisely where bookingkit as an enabler complements the many initiatives of the corporate family, in order to successfully digitalize small and medium-sized businesses as the backbone of the German economy.”

Dr. Tanja Emmerling, Senior Investment Manager HTGF, “also sees great potential that bookingkit can quickly become the leading GDS for tour and activity providers”.

Lukas C. C. Hempel, Co-Founder and Co-Managing Director of bookingkit, also emphasizes the market potential: “According to a Phocuswright forecast, the recreational activities market is expected to increase its sales volume within a few years from 100 billion USD to 130 billion USD. We want to play a leading role in shaping this development with our solution — not only in Germany, but also in the European market. We want to become the market’s leading SaaS provider.”

About bookingkit
bookingkit provides digitalization solutions for tours and activities — the third largest tourism sector. The company’s software-as-a-service solution provides tour and activity providers with a standardized and scalable technology for managing, selling and marketing bookings. With its integrated distribution system, bookingkit is able to connect this information with destinations, travel agencies and sales channels. bookingkit thus offers both providers and marketers a digital infrastructure which can be managed in real time around the globe. The company received several awards in 2017, including PhocusWright Europe’s “EMEA Travel Innovator” award, Travel Industry Club’s “Startup of the Year” award, and a “Very Good” rating from Germany’s renowned comparison shopping engine, vergleich.org. Founded in 2014 by Christoph Kruse and Lukas C. C. Hempel, bookingkit is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. For more information, visit: www.bookingkit.net

About HTGF
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is a seed investor that finances high-potential, tech-driven start-ups. With EUR 886 million in total investment volume across three funds (EUR 272 million in HTGF I, EUR 304 million in HTGF II, and a targeted volume of EUR 310 million for HTGF III) and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge close to 500 start-ups since 2005.  Driven by their expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion, its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts help guide the development of young companies.  HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in a range of sectors, including software, media, internet, hardware, automation, health care, chemicals and life sciences.

This group also includes a number of success stories, such as Mister Spex, Rigontec, 6Wunderkinder, Next Kraftwerke and Cumulocity, as well as Juniqe, an online shop for art enthusiasts. To date, external investors have injected over EUR 1.5 billion into the HTGF portfolio via more than 1,200 follow-on financing rounds. HTGF has also successfully sold interests in almost 90 companies.

Investors in this public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V., as well as the companies ALTANA, BASF, B.Braun, Robert Bosch, BÜFA, CEWE, Deutsche Post DHL, Dräger, Drillisch AG, EVONIK, EWE AG, Haniel, Hettich, Knauf, Körber, LANXESS, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, PHOENIX CONTACT, Postbank, QIAGEN, RWE Generation SE, SAP, Schufa, Schwarz Gruppe, STIHL, Thüga, Vector Informatik and WACKER.

For more information, click here: https://www.htgf.de/en/

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Tanja Emerling
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel: +49 (0) 228 / 82 30 01-30
t.emmerling@htgf.de