Hopper receives $82-million financing led by la Caisse
Caisse de depot et placement du Québec announced a $40-million investment in Hopper, the mobile app that analyzes and predicts airfare. This is part of the $82-million financing led by la Caisse, one of North America's largest pension fund managers. Existing investors Brightspark Ventures, Accomplice, OMERS Ventures, Investissement Québec and BDC Capital IT Venture Fund also participated in the round.
Hopper, whose head office is based in Montréal, will use the funds to further scale its growth, expand its international presence, and partner with more airlines abroad.
“Mobile commerce has reached the tipping point globally. We have growth initiatives slated for Q1 2017 in over 20 countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia,” said Frederic Lalonde, CEO and co-founder. “Hopper is sending over 20 million push notifications a month and 90% of Hopper’s sales come directly from push notifications.”
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“Hopper stands out through its innovation capability by using highly sophisticated technologies to predict customer demand and buying behaviour,” said Christian Dubé, Executive Vice-President, Québec, of la Caisse. “This financing is intended to consolidate the company’s current lead in the market by accelerating the pace of its development and global expansion.”
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In the past year, Hopper has scaled from 1 million users to more than 10 million users, who have collectively used the app to track 18 million individual trips. The company’s sales have also grown by 23X. In fact, Hopper is installed over a million times each month and is now selling $1 million in flights per day in 126 countries.
Hopper is currently the only company that can forecast future flight prices with 95% accuracy up to a year in advance of departure. The app recommends whether you should book now or wait based on current and historical yield trends as well as pricing volatility. Hopper collects five to eight billion airfare price quotes daily, and has built a huge historical archive of 5.2 trillion prices from the past several years.
Hopper has earned accolades such as the Apple’s App Store Best of 2015 award, the Google Play Award for Standout Startup of 2016, and the 2016 Webby Award for Best Travel App.
The company’s Series C funds will also fuel Hopper’s hiring initiatives. Hopper plans to scale from 40 employees to more than 120 employees in Montréal and Cambridge by the end of 2017.
ABOUT HOPPER
Hopper is an award-winning airfare prediction app available for iOS and Android devices. Hopper analyzes billions of flight prices a day to provide advice on when to fly and buy. Hopper predicts price changes for your trip, and notifies you when to book. Visit www.hopper.com for more information and to download the free app. Hopper is available for free download on the App Store and Google Play.
ABOUT CAISSE DE DÉPÔT ET PLACEMENT DU QUÉBEC
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30, 2016, it held $254.9 billion in net assets. As one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure and real estate. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.
Hopper - Airfare Predictions
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