Reportedly, the adventure travel market globally is estimated to be worth approximately $750 billion each year and is projected to maintain a double-digit growth rate. Currently, the Italian startup WeRoad is striving to revolutionise group adventure travel specifically for millennial travellers.
Now, the travel tech scaleup has closed a €18 million Series B round led by H14, an Italian family office that invested in Qualifyze recently. H14 was also joined by a consortium of investors and established a dedicated investment vehicle named Annapurna for the purpose of the fundraise. With this round, the total funding raised by the company accounts for €36 million.
The funding will be used to fuel WeRoad’s growth and develop its technology in order to further enhance scalability. WeRoad will use part of the new funding to expand this model to all of its European markets. Also, it plans to expand into the US and other English-speaking countries.
In addition, it is planning to create a comprehensive marketplace for travel producers, travel coordinators, and service suppliers, including Destination Management Companies (DMCs). This expansion extends into ‘off-travel’ activities, offering WeRoaders a variety of events, meetups, and experiences, all managed and booked through a dedicated app.
Redefine group adventure travel
Founded in 2017 in Italy by Erika De Santi, Fabio Bin, and Paola De Nadai, WeRoad is positioned as one of the rapidly expanding travel platforms in Europe. With offices in Italy, Spain, the UK, France, and Germany, it operates in the DACH market and boasts a team of approximately 150 employees.
Its itineraries see people from similar age groups travel together led by travel coordinators. They are not conventional tour guides but fellow travellers passionate about travel and eager to discover faraway lands.
With a strong community DNA with a large social following of over 2.5 million followers. With the strength of its over 2,500 coordinators, WeRoad has helped over 100,000 travellers to discover the world and make new friends in more than 300 itineraries.
Unlike its market competitors, such as Contiki, Intrepid, and G Adventures, WeRoad stands out with its distinctive feature, WeRoadX. This curated marketplace empowers travel coordinators to prepare personalised itineraries. Introduced in 2023, this feature has led to the development of more than 200 new itineraries spanning 50 new destinations.
Andrea D’Amico, CEO of WeRoad said: “This round doubles our total investment to date and is a strong endorsement by both existing and new investors of the WeRoad success story. In just five years, and despite a global pandemic, we’ve managed to capture the group adventure travel market. And over the past 12 months, we’ve not only doubled our turnover but also significantly enhanced our future growth potential by increasing our community of travel coordinators in Europe from 1,200 to 2,500, paving the way for an exciting future.”
Riccardo Porcelli, Head of Digital Investments at H14, said “We have observed how the travel sector has become increasingly resilient and non-discretionary, especially among millennials. We’ve been tracking WeRoad for a while and are extremely impressed with the community and platform they’ve built in just a short time. We’re very excited to join their story and look forward to supporting the team in their next phase of growth.”
