We’ve received an investment of €100 million, one of the largest investments of its size in a Czech start-up. The capital comes from a preeminent global institutional investor and will be used to support continued growth as we bolster the position in the global travel industry.
Since our founding in 2012, we rapidly disrupted the highly fragmented global flight ticket industry by challenging the existing airline and OTA (online travel agency) approach with the customer-focused technology platform. Our mission is to support customers throughout their journey and identify the best and, in many cases, unique ways to reach their destination at the lowest price.
Our co-founder and CEO, Oliver Dlouhý, said: “Kiwi.com was founded in 2012 on the single idea to support customers looking for options to reach their destination for a better price. Little did I know then that our innovative technology would bring disruption that wasn’t seen since low-cost carriers entered the market over 50 years ago. The investment will enable us to continue to build on that innovation and drive future growth to support more customers.”
As we capitalize on a huge recovery in demand for flights and travel around the world, our focus is:
- Customer experience: Bringing a superior and unified experience by providing a single point of contact and support throughout their journey
- Unique content and lowest fares: Enhancing the company’s industry-leading technology to enable our customers to book the itineraries they want and offer hidden itineraries not available anywhere else
- Product innovation: Continuing to bring innovation into our products that support and add value to customers beyond flight tickets
Our CFO, Iain Wetherall, commented: “We are immensely proud of this endorsement and we never stopped investing into product innovation and customer experience, even during the pandemic, and this capital enables us to further accelerate our growth plans. We and our majority shareholder, General Atlantic, are gratified to be partnering with this prestigious global institutional investor, reflecting the confidence in a strong recovery in air travel and our market leadership.”