Headout bags $30 million funding to accelerate its expansion to 500 cities globally

Headout, a startup that helps travelers discover and book tours, activities, events and local experiences, has raised $30 million funding led by existing investor Glade Brook Capital, bringing its total Series B financing to $42 million.

Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, FJ Labs and 500 Startups also participated in the financing along with a clutch of startup founders and operators including Swiggy CEO Sriharsha Majety, Postman CTO Ankit Sobti and Pratilipi CEO Ranjeet Pratap Singh among others.

The startup had earlier raised $12 million financing led by Glade Brook Capital in September last year.

Headout said it plans to use the funds raised to accelerate its expansion to 500 cities in the next 24 months, launch new verticals for domestic short-haul travel and build new technology products to make real-life experiences immersive and affordable.

For this, it plans to hire aggressively for people across all roles and locations. It is also scouting for acquisitions in travel, entertainment and augmented reality (AR). The startup currently has more than 150 employees and claimed to have adopted a "zero-layoff strategy irrespective of the current Omicron wave and any future disruption by the pandemic".

"With all of the previous raise still in our bank and our consistently profitable economics, we have all the firepower we need to focus on aggressive expansion worldwide and longer-term investments to aid broader recovery of all things IRL (in real life) experiences," said Headout cofounder Varun Khona.

Founded in 2015, Headout is a mobile-first marketplace that offers managed travel experiences including tours, events and local activities to travelers in 30 cities across the world including New York, Las Vegas, London, Dubai, Rome, Singapore, Paris and Barcelona.

The startup saw a significant hit to its business during the early months of the pandemic, however with domestic travel rebounding, Headout said it doubled down on domestic travel and local demand that used to be a minority segment pre-pandemic.

The company operates a "managed marketplace" wherein it actively curates the supply (experiences), standardises it and upgrades it to ensure consistent quality. It claims that this approach helps them deliver a higher conversion rate than the existing aggregators.

So far, around 10 million people from 190 countries have been on a Headout experience across more than 30 cities, the company said. It claimed to have been EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) profitable since July 2021 and crossed its pre-COVID levels in total guests served in October 2021.

The startup also claimed to have scaled to more than $40 million in annual revenue run-rate and more than $200 million in annualised sales. It now aims to reach $1 billion in annual sales in the next 24 months.

"Now, more than ever, people crave in-person, local travel experiences. We believe Headout is building an exceptional platform to discover and book experiences. Glade Brook is excited to strengthen our partnership with Headout as we enter a multi-year travel supercycle" said Linda Guo, partner at Glade Brook Capital.