Jan 13, 2020, Vancouver, British Columbia and Austin, Texas – ToursByLocals, the world’s leading online marketplace for private tours, today announced it has secured a $33 million investment from Austin, Texas-based investment firm Tritium Partners. Tritium is an investor in RVshare, and its founders previously led investments in vacation rental giant HomeAway and other leading online marketplaces, including RetailMeNot and CreditCards.com.
ToursByLocals will use the investment to accelerate its already rapid growth, focusing on enhancements in user experience, technology, marketing and hiring more top-tier talent.
ToursByLocals provides travelers with highly curated and customizable private tour experiences globally; it competes in the tours and activities market, which is the fastest growing segment of the global tourism and travel industry. With more than 4,100 tour guides in over 160 countries, ToursByLocals offers premium tour experiences in popular destinations like Rome, Barcelona, Paris, and London or places as off the beaten track as Windhoek, Namibia or Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia.
“A private tour with a local guide is the best way to experience a destination. Since our founding, we’ve focused on creating truly memorable private tour experiences for travelers, while helping local tour guides offer customizable tours in over 1,000 destinations globally,” said Paul Melhus, CEO and co-Founder of ToursByLocals. “We are excited to partner with Tritium. In addition to growth capital, we value the strategic advice offered by both the Tritium team and its network of experienced marketplace executives, as we continue to scale up our operations as a leading online travel marketplace.”
Brett Shobe, a Partner at Tritium focused on marketplace investments, said, “ToursByLocals stood out as the premier private tour marketplace with the highest quality tours and local guides in the industry. We’re thrilled to partner with the ToursByLocals team and look forward to leveraging our capital and resources to support and accelerate their exciting growth trajectory.”
“ToursByLocals represents the seventh online marketplace investment and fourth travel marketplace in which I’ve been involved. We understand what it takes to be a market disruptor, and we believe ToursByLocals has the potential to transform the private tour industry in the same way HomeAway changed the market for vacation rentals,” said Phil Siegel, Tritium co-founder and Managing Partner.
For more information, please visit the ToursByLocals website at www.toursbylocals.com.
About ToursByLocals
Founded by Canadians Paul Melhus and Dave Vincent in November 2008, and later joined by Argentinian Luciano Bullorsky, ToursByLocals connects discerning travelers in search of customized, private tours with handpicked tour guides, providing exceptional travel experiences in over 160 countries, worldwide. Our private tours are consistently awarded 5-star ratings by the over 1.4 million travelers who have toured with us since 2008.
With over 4,100 experienced guides in large and small cities, ports of call and remote destinations, travelers can always find a local expert to meet their needs, whether they’re traveling to Anchorage, Buenos Aires, Tokyo or anywhere in between.
About Tritium Partners
Founded in 2013, Tritium is a private equity firm focused on companies with exceptional growth potential. For over 17 years, both at Tritium and prior vehicles, Tritium’s founders have partnered with talented founders and executives to build market-leading companies. Tritium’s approach emphasizes creating long-term value through strategic growth initiatives and acquisitions, with a focus on internet and information services, supply chain and logistics, and financial and business services.
All amounts mentioned in this press release are in Canadian dollars.
