Headout’s rapid growth aided by its managed model to provide seamless access to consistently high-quality IRL experiences is accelerating the world’s return to the best places on the planet

New York – Headout, home to world’s most exceptional real-life experiences, has raised additional $30 million in Series B financing round in addition to the $12 million in September ’21, bringing the total round size to $42 million.

The investment is led by existing investor Glade Brook Capital with the participation of existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, FJ Labs and 500 Startups, among others. A number of founders and operators also participated, including Sriharsha Majety (CEO, Swiggy), Ankit Sobit (CTO, Postman) and Ranjeet Pratap Singh (CEO, Pratilipi), among others.

The funding will further Headout’s mission to get people out in the real world experiencing this incredible planet we live on. In a society that is increasingly littered with digital screens and talks about the metaverse, there is a desperate need for a counter solution that augments the human experience and its interaction with the real universe around it. That’s Headout’s raison d’etre and that’s what it solves for.

Headout is the most seamless and delightful way to experience the real world in just three taps. It is a managed and a mobile-first marketplace that actively curates its supply, standardises it and upgrades it to provide a reliably superior service in a fragmented industry. The end result is seamless access to exceptional experiences no matter where one is – be it a tour of a neighbourhood in Athens or tickets to the Sydney Opera or a ride on the dunes of the deserts of Dubai or last-minute access to a Broadway show.

With travel rebound strengthening, Headout has delivered 800% growth since Jan ’21 by doubling down on domestic travel and local demand which used to be a minority segment pre-pandemic. This growth was acknowledged in Andreesen Horowitz’s list of top 100 fastest growing marketplaces. Its managed model delivers a better user experience leading to a higher conversion rate than the existing aggregators. A combination of rapid growth and positive unit economics made Headout the first high-growth startup in the experience ecosystem to become EBITDA profitable in July ’21. So far, 10 million people from 190+ countries have been on a Headout experience across 30+ cities.

The funds will be used to accelerate its journey to $1 billion in annual sales by expanding to 500 cities in the next 24 months, launching new verticals for domestic short-haul travel and building the next generation of technology products to make real-life experiences immersive and affordable. To achieve this, Headout is hiring aggressively for people across all roles and locations that relate to its mission, identify with its values and are obsessed with solving hard real world problems – in both bits and atoms. The company is actively pursuing acquisitions in travel, entertainment and AR to build the future faster. It has also adopted a zero-layoff strategy irrespective of the current Omicron wave and any future disruption by the pandemic to ensure no stone is left unturned in aiding broader experiences recovery.

“The world is an incredibly boring place without travel and real-life experiences. Covid has only made us more relentless on our mission to inspire people to experience the world out there and the current wave only strengthens our resolve,” said Varun Khona, co-founder & CEO of Headout. “With all of the previous raise still in our bank and our consistently profitable economics, we have all the firepower we need to focus on aggressive expansion worldwide and longer-term investments to aid broader recovery of all things IRL experiences.”

Linda Guo, partner at Glade Brook Capital, said: “Now, more than ever, people crave in-person, local travel experiences. We believe Headout is building an exceptional platform to discover and book experiences. Glade Brook is excited to strengthen our partnership with Headout as we enter a multi-year travel supercycle.”