GetYourGuide

Overview

GetYourGuide is an online marketplace for travel experiences: guided tours, excursions, cooking and craft classes, skip-the-line tickets and other activities offered by local providers in destinations around the world. The company was founded in 2009 in Zurich, Switzerland, by Johannes Reck, Tao Tao, Martin Sieber and Tobias Rein (Wikipedia additionally names Pascal Mathis among the founders), and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, where the business relocated in 2012 according to Wikipedia. It is frequently cited as one of the most prominent travel-tech companies to emerge from the German-speaking world and appears in Startuprad.io's DACH unicorn trackers.

Why this entity matters

GetYourGuide matters as a rare example of a marketplace company that grew from a Swiss founding team into a Berlin-based global platform and reached unicorn status. Its 2019 Series E, reported at more than US$480 million and a valuation of around US$1 billion, placed it among Europe's best-funded travel startups, and a June 2023 financing of about US$194 million at a reported valuation near US$2 billion showed that investors were willing to back travel technology again after the pandemic. That financing combined equity and credit: Blue Pool Capital led an US$85 million Series F with participation from KKR and Temasek, while UniCredit led a US$109 million revolving credit facility with BNP Paribas, Citi and KfW, according to TechFundingNews.

The company is also a useful indicator for the wider ecosystem. Startuprad.io's monthly news roundups followed its trajectory through the pandemic, including a reported reduction of roughly one sixth of its workforce in 2020 and subsequent convertible and loan financing in late 2020 and early 2021, and later reporting that the CEO had dampened expectations of an initial public offering. Panel guests on Startuprad.io have also named GetYourGuide as an example of a globally successful DACH company, and the Startuprad.io research on university spin-offs lists it among landmark companies connected to ETH Zurich.

Company or institutional background

GetYourGuide AG began in Zurich in 2009 and moved its headquarters to Berlin, which hosts its main technology and operations teams. The platform lets travelers discover and book activities, with the company reporting in 2023 more than 75,000 activities from over 16,000 experience creators and more than 80 million bookings from travelers in over 150 countries. Its strategic priorities at the time of the 2023 financing included expansion in North America and investment in artificial-intelligence and large-language-model features to improve discovery and booking.

Funding history as reported by Wikipedia and the press includes a Series A in 2013, a Series B in 2014, a Series C in 2015, a Series D in 2017, a Series E of about US$484 million in 2019 (Silicon Canals described it at the time as reportedly involving SoftBank) and the 2023 growth financing. Wikipedia also records an early acquisition of the Berlin startup Gidsy in 2013. Wikipedia further reports that the company reached profitability in October 2025 and passed EUR 1 billion in annual sales in 2025; Startuprad.io has not independently verified these 2025 figures. Valuations and round sizes are as reported by press outlets and have not been confirmed against company filings for this record.

Role in the ecosystem

GetYourGuide operates in the travel-experiences layer of online travel, sitting between local tour and activity operators on the supply side and international travelers on the demand side. It is usually grouped with other DACH consumer-internet scaleups in the Berlin cluster, such as Omio and Contentful, in Startuprad.io's unicorn tracking, and its financing history serves as a benchmark for how late-stage consumer marketplaces combine equity with bank credit facilities.

Selected relationships and affiliations

Publicly reported relationships include the founders listed above; Blue Pool Capital, KKR and Temasek as equity investors in the 2023 round; UniCredit, BNP Paribas, Citi and KfW as lenders in the revolving credit facility; and, in the 2019 round, SoftBank as reported by Silicon Canals. Startuprad.io's DACH unicorn tracker also notes support from Checkout.com and Prime Ventures at a later stage. These relationships are listed as reported by third-party outlets and do not represent a verified current capitalization table.

Startuprad.io relevance

GetYourGuide appears repeatedly in Startuprad.io's DACH startup news roundups between 2020 and 2023, covering its pandemic-era restructuring and financing, its 2023 financing round and the debate about an initial public offering. It is also listed in the 2025 DACH Unicorn Tracker and the Ultimate 2025 DACH Unicorn Startups Tracker, and in Startuprad.io research on research spin-offs and deep-tech transfer. Startuprad.io has not published a dedicated interview with the company, so the linked coverage consists of roundups and ecosystem analyses in which GetYourGuide is one of several featured companies.

Public source context

This record draws on GetYourGuide's own website https://www.getyourguide.com , Wikipedia, TechFundingNews coverage of the June 2023 financing, Silicon Canals and other press reporting. Funding amounts, valuations and customer figures are as reported by those outlets at the time of publication and have not been independently re-verified against company filings for this record; treat specific figures as press-reported, not confirmed.

Startuprad.io coverage

Startup news Germany (and GSA) — June 2023 | Episode #388
Published: 15 March 2026
Last updated: 28 September 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-june-2023-episode-388

Research Spin-offs & Deep Tech Transfer: Germany, Austria & Switzerland
Published: 10 March 2026
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/research-spin-offs-and-deep-tech-transfer-in-germany-austria-and-switzerland

The Ultimate 2025 DACH Unicorn Startups Tracker by Startuprad.io
Published: 20 June 2025
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/the-ultimate-2025-guide-to-dach-unicorns-startuprad-io-tracker

🦄 DACH Unicorn Tracker 2025: Trends, Funding, and Opportunities | Startuprad.io
Published: 18 April 2025
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Coverage type: Analysis
https://www.startuprad.io/post/dach-unicorn-tracker-2025-trends-funding-and-opportunities-startuprad-io

DACH Startup News November 2023: Founders, Funding and Ecosystem Updates
Published: 29 November 2023
Last updated: 20 September 2026
Coverage type: News
https://www.startuprad.io/post/this-month-in-german-swiss-and-austrian-gsa-startups-november-2023

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Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/getyourguide .