Much Better Adventures raises £1.25m with biggest ever travel crowdfunding campaign

Much Better Adventures, the London-based online travel company, has successfully raised £1.25m in a mix of equity crowdfunding and private investment. 

The Startups 100-ranked business hit their minimum target of £750,000 on Crowdcube inside 72 hours of launching, which it claims is the fastest and largest crowdfunding round by a travel company to date. 

708 investors participated in the round including Paddy Byng, founding investor in Rapha, who also joins the company’s advisory board, alongside Brett Akker, founder of Streetcar (acquired by Zipcar) and LOVESPACE.

Launched in 2012 by Alex Narracott, Sam Bruce and Guy Bowden, Much Better Adventures is an online travel booking platform that aims to make it easier for consumers to live a more “adventure-rich” life.

Boasting a “tribe” of over 20,000, the start-up claims to have made over £10m worth of holiday sales to date.

Speaking on the success of the campaign and use of the funds, Narracott, Bruce and Bowden said:

“We’re delighted to have hit our target so quickly and to have our own customers and hosts owning a piece of the pie.

“The round will allow us to faster expand our global range of experiences, grow our team and invest in long term organic marketing plans and we’re really looking forward to meeting many of our 700+ new investors on some of our upcoming adventures.”

Luke Lang, co-founder at Crowdcube, said:

“By giving its community the opportunity to invest, alongside our own investor community and existing backers Seedcamp, Much Better Adventures’ £1m+ round highlights how Crowdcube provides a platform to secure funding from multiple sources.

“We’re pleased to have been part of Much Better Adventures growth story. We’re looking forward to seeing what’s next for the business.”

Much Better Adventures joins Revolut, Startups 100-ranked Monzo, Startups 100-ranked BrewDog, and JustPark in raising over £1m on Crowdcube since the crowdfunding platform was was launched six years ago.