In a nutshell
- Croatian-founded Turneo, a travel tech startup focused on experiential hospitality, announced the closing of a €2M seed investment round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Underline Ventures.
- Turneo plans to expand its product offerings, grow its global user base, and establish strategic partnerships with visionary global hoteliers.
New capital infusion to transform how hotels manage and promote guest activities
Turneo aims to enable hotels to manage their entire activities offering in one place. It was founded in 2022 by Fran Kauzlaric and Matija Marijan.
Additionally, it offers hotels a unified platform to manage all in-house and partner activities.
“Travelers plan and book activities before arriving at their destination”, said co-founder Kauzlaric. “With Turneo, hotels can finally showcase their destinations and manage the activity offering to their guests. This means happier guests, with additional revenue and less operational hassle for hotels”.
The startup announced the successful closing of a €2M seed investment round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Underline Ventures. Matija Marijan, CEO and co-founder of Turneo commented they are thrilled to have the support of such incredible investors.
Bessemer Venture Partners, a global firm in early-stage venture capital, identified Turneo’s potential to revolutionize the travel sector, building on their previous investments in companies like Shopify and Toast, as well as brands such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Skype.
“Bessemer started following our progress very early on – while we were still in stealth mode, and we were incredibly impressed by them as an investor,” added Kauzlaric.
“They have strong conviction in vertical software, believe in the need for technology to revolutionize the hospitality industry, and have incredible experience scaling early stage startups,” he added.
Turneo expands hiring amid global growth plan
The experiential travel market is still not well digitized, but many startups are tapping into it. We asked Turneo’s co-founder what sets them apart. Kauzlaric explained that their differentiating factor lies in their sharp focus and execution, backed by years of tech and travel experience across the entire team. Their successful execution is already demonstrated by hotel clients like Aminess and Maistra.
“I think there being competition is fantastic for this sector because the industry is more than big enough to withstand it. We need further digitization of the experiences part of travel – so I’m always happy to connect with fellow founders in this space. We are focused on B2B only (and for a reason!), and we are strongly focused on hotels and hospitality groups,” shared Kauzlaric.
In addition to growing the team, the funding will enable expansion into new markets and significant product enhancements. Turneo plans to hire across engineering (front- and back-end), sales and financial operations. Currently, their outbound focus is on the Mediterranean (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy), Africa, having a strong experiential market, as well as Asia.
However, Turneo’s model does not necessitate a market-by-market approach, shared the company’s representatives. The implementation could be done within a couple of days by any hotel chain.
