Travel startups are not strangers to the concept of the $100 million+ mega-round, especially in recent years as the market has matured and new investors have come on the scene.
The industry has a particular problem here, some will argue, given that exit opportunities are narrowing as incumbents figure out what to do or buy one of the many of the heavily funded brands, leaving others in their wake.
Startups raising $100 million or more from investors — known as a mega-round in Silicon Valley — used to be a rarity.
But now, they are practically routine, producing a frenzy around tech companies with enough scale and momentum to absorb a large check.
The jump in oversize investments is led by relatively new investors, including the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, Chinese companies and sovereign wealth funds.
They see a chance to capitalize on tech’s incursion into just about every industry, and want to put their money down before the young companies go public.
By entering the tech market, they have all but eliminated talk in Silicon Valley about an investment bubble — a leading concern a couple of years ago — because the money now seems almost limitless.