• Greek travel tech startup Welcome Pickups secured an investment worth €5.3M.
• Existing investors Market One Capital, Flashpoint, and Venture Friends participated in the round.
• The company plans to expand to over 200 destinations worldwide.
Athens-based travel transportation startup Welcome Pickups’ solution provides travelers with the opportunity to easily access and manage their transfer details, by contacting drivers or HQ from their mobile phones or tablets.
According to the CEO of Welcome Pickups, Alex Trimis, the latest funding will help accelerate the company’s geographical reach, with a goal to double its destination network, as well as launch new destinations in North and South America.
“Regarding the region, both Market One Capital and Flashpoint invest in Central and Eastern Europe. We are expanding the team heavily and most hires will happen here in Athens or remotely again with a focus on CEE candidates,” Trimis told The Recursive.
Trimis also added that “a portion of the funds will also go to further improving customer experience and developing new products to support the company’s mission of creating a complete, personalized, and inclusive in-destination travel experience for all.”
According to Venture Friends, the strong turnaround of Welcome Pickups has impressed its investors and has also enabled this funding round.
“During the tough Corona period the company worked hard on product and processes for expansion and hit the ground running once the travel market opened up again. This work allowed the company to easily exceed 2019 numbers, attain profitability and laid the ground for a very strong 2023,” Venture Friends tells The Recursive in a statement.
Introducing new trends in the transportation industry
In 2022, the Greek company managed to achieve a 50% growth rate and launch over 30 new destinations, bringing the company’s total locations to 100 in 50 countries, and serving over million travelers in popular destinations such as France, Spain, Italy and Greece.
“We are extremely excited to further support Welcome Pickups with additional capital on their growth journey. The company demonstrated an ultimate level of resilience during the COVID downtime and further improved the business model that allowed them to bounce back, once the lockdowns were lifted, with even greater success. We are very much looking forward to Welcome Pickups utilising the fresh capital to continue their international expansion and offering their services in an even larger number of destinations,” said Donatella Callegaris, managing partner at Flashpoint.
Welcome Pickups also focused on streamlining processes and increasing product-led automation throughout its operations, resulting in an 8x drop in human touch per booking.
According to Trimis, Welcome Pickups will now focuson introducing new trends to the industry.
“Regarding trends, we are still betting that people will focus on experiential travel as mentioned in the latest Expedia and other reports. Welcome Pickups is taking that very commoditized point A to point B transfer that happens in travel and transforms it to your first experience at the destination that can transform your overall trip,” Trimis tells The Recursive.
