Headout raises an additional $30 million in Series B financing round

Headout, travel experiences app, has raised an additional $30 million in Series B financing round in addition to the $12 million raised in September last year, bringing the total round size to $42 million.

The investment is led by existing investor Glade Brook Capital with the participation of existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, FJ Labs and 500 Startups, among others. A number of founders and operators also participated, including Sriharsha Majety (CEO, Swiggy), Ankit Sobit (CTO, Postman) and Ranjeet Pratap Singh (CEO, Pratilipi), among others.

The funding will further Headout's mission to get people out in the real world that is increasingly littered with digital screens and talks about the metaverse. There is a desperate need for a counter solution that augments the human experience and its interaction with the real universe around it. That's Headout's raison d'etre and that's what it solves for, said the company.

Headout is a managed and a mobile-first marketplace that actively curates its supply, standardises it and upgrades it to provide a reliable service in a fragmented industry.

"The world is an incredibly boring place without travel and real-life experiences. Covid has only made us more relentless on our mission to inspire people to experience the world out there and the current wave only strengthens our resolve," said Varun Khona, co-founder & CEO of Headout. “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 experiences."

With travel rebound strengthening, Headout has delivered 800 per cent growth since January 2021 by doubling down on domestic travel and local demand which used to be a minority segment in the pre-pandemic era. This growth was acknowledged in Andreesen Horowitz's list of top 100 fastest growing marketplaces.

Headcount became EBITDA profitable in July 2021. So far, 10 million people from more than 190 countries have been on a Headout experience across 30+ cities.

The funds will be used to accelerate its journey to $1 billion in annual sales by expanding to 500 cities in the next 24 months, launching new verticals for domestic short-haul travel and building the next generation of technology products to make real-life experiences immersive and affordable.

The company is actively pursuing acquisitions in travel, entertainment and AR to build the future faster. It has also adopted a zero-layoff strategy irrespective of the current Omicron wave and any future disruption by the pandemic to ensure no stone is left unturned in aiding broader experiences recovery.

Linda Guo, partner at Glade Brook Capital, said, “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.”