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After 2 years into pandemic, German travel tech unicorn Omio raises $80M as travel roars back

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While the COVID-19 pandemic crisis hit the travel industry hard, now it’s time to rebound. And when that’s the case, how can we miss talking about the German travel tech unicorn, Omio.

The Berlin-based multi-modal travel booking platform has announced a further $80 million investment from leading tech and growth investors including Lazard Asset Management, Stack Capital Group, NEA, Temasek, and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, amongst others.

The fresh funding for Omio comes as global travel and bookings are rebounding to record levels following two years of consumer uncertainty.

Naren Shaam, CEO and Founder of Omio, stated: “I am incredibly grateful to announce another key milestone in Omio’s journey: this funding from a strong roster of investors, after a rough 2+ years, underlines the enormous power and potential of our business model, as well as our belief that the human need to travel is unwavering. This desire to travel has evolved, and we are observing exciting fundamental shifts in the sector, such as a move towards ground transport, mobile-first bookings and an increase in non-hub travel, all of which will fuel our growth for years to come. The fresh funds will allow us to pursue our vision of a globally unified transportation network on a single digital platform.”


Omio has invested in its product, inventory and its core business of ground transport over the past 2 years, including launching Portugal to become the first third-party booking platform to sell tickets from Comboios de Portugal, the country’s state-owned railway company. Further strengthening its unique customer experience, Omio launched a self-service desk to allow customers to alter and cancel bookings themselves, making the individual travel experience even more customised.

The capital raised will be prudently deployed to reinitiate global expansion activities including M&A, as well as through further leveraging our transportation data and extensive inventory by scaling our partnerships, such as the existing collaborations with Kayak, Huawei, LNER (London North Eastern Railway) and others. Additionally it will be utilised to build out Omio’s product and services, as well as to further invest in its talent and work diligently towards sustainable profitability.

In addition to an increase in customer demand, Omio claims to be rebounding faster than several of the largest travel platforms, for instance, ticket bookings are more than 140% above 2019 levels (pre-pandemic). This comes hand-in-hand with a continuous shift to booking transportation via mobile applications, as well as a sustained shift to more sustainable transportation modes.

The 80% of Omio’s bookings are mobile, and they have seen a 25% increase in app booking since January 2019, while desktop bookings decreased by 13%. Travellers’ habits have further shifted, and Omio are observing more sustainable behaviours, for example, overall flight bookings are down 50% while ground transportation bookings are above pre-pandemic level.

For those who are not aware, the multimodal platform allows people to find and book trains, buses, flights, ferries, car rentals and car-sharing services in one place. Initially, it was founded as GoEuro in 2013 by Naren Shaam and rebranded to become Omio in 2019. With more than 300+ employees from 45 different countries, the tech unicorn lets travellers search for any location including cities, towns and villages, showing the best possible transport combinations while eliminating the need to visit multiple websites or download local apps to plan an entire trip.

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