Trip360 is offering a SAFE that will convert into equity in the future subject to a 15% discount on the future value of the firm. The security will also have a valuation cap on it of $7.5 million. This valuation is reasonable both in terms of a revenue multiple for Trip360 and in comparison to other startups currently raising capital. 

Broadly speaking, the tourism market is vast. In 2019, there were 1.46 billion travel departures across the globe. In monetary terms, this is significant. In 2018, the global leisure travel market was valued at $953.9 billion. This is expected to grow at a rate of 5.6% per annum, climbing to $1.46 trillion by the end of 2026. A second source estimates the global market at just over $1 trillion in 2019. Its forecast is for the space to grow at a rate of 22.6% per annum from 2021 through 2027 as the industry recovers from a rough year in 2020. If this holds true, it would take the market value to $1.74 trillion by 2027. Due to the large travel market and its high growth rate, Trip360’s market score is its highest across all five metrics.

Based on the data provided, the team managing Trip360 appears solid. Take Avi Amar, the company’s lead founder and its CEO. Prior to starting Trip360, Amar founded a firm called Reachix, which focused on helping companies build their social media presence. That business was acquired by Trip360. Before that, Amar served as the vice president of digital and product at ISSTA. That firm focused on digital and mobile strategy as well as product management and people management services. Prior to that, he founded Groupunch and Divine Networks. The role he held before founding these firms was CTO at Telespear Technologies. Before that, Amar was head of web development at SimiGon. Another position he held previously was that of team leader of software engineering at Philip Morris. At these firms, Amar clearly picked up leadership experience, and his positions at Philip Morris and at ISSTA illustrate technology-related skills. 

The other key person at and co-founder of Trip360 is Effi Shmilovitch. At this time, he is also the company’s CTO. Like Amar, Shmilovitch was a co-founder of Reachix. He, too, worked at ISSTA, where he served as a development team leader. Before that, he was a software developer at Codeo. Having both leadership experience and technological experience is excellent for a CTO position. 

Because of the experiences of these two co-founders, Trip360’s team score is above average.

In some respects, Trip360 is very much like many of the other travel sites out there. Yes, the app itself is complementary to the space. Management makes this all too clear by offering a white label version of the app to travel brands. However, at the end of the day, it is a tourist logistics platform. That is not to say, though, that the company is not differentiated from the competition at all. The firms that it is most like are still quite different from it in its current incarnation. Tripit and TripCase, for instance, don’t offer a personalized journey or bundling of options, but they do provide communications and content. Journera offers personalized journeys and bundling but not much else, and Bridgify offers most of what Trip360 does. The exception boils down to self-service support, tools, and communications capabilities. In short, Trip360 should be viewed as something of an aggregation of the best that these platforms offer. This is, in a way, a form of differentiation of sorts, though it has low defensibility. Taken all together, the differentiators score for Trip360 is just above average.

When it comes to performance, Trip360 has fared quite well. In 2018, the company generated nothing in the way of revenue, and its net loss was $760. In 2019, revenue was $115,954, and net income was $9,053. The company’s operating cash flow in 2019 was $36,379. No official financial data has been provided by management for 2020. However, Trip360 claims that in the past 12 months, it generated more than $700,000 in revenue. Outside of financials, the company has already landed agreements with Booking.com and Tripadvisor. It also claims to have at least 30 content partners at this time, but specifics on those have not been provided. Thus, Trip360’s performance score is above average.

Investors who are considering Trip360 should be aware of all of the bearish considerations involved. For instance, it should not be shocking to find out that the travel industry is in the doldrums right now. Times are hard for everyone exposed to the space. That does create some extra risk for this company. In addition, the market prospects look questionable largely due to the competition out there. Adding in the threat that competition could always step in and adopt the Trip360’s ideas, investors should definitely be cautious.

On the bullish side though, there are plenty of things for investors to be excited about. Trip360’s team here is solid. The price for participating in this round is probably more or less appropriate, and the traction the company has seen, especially if its latest revenue figure is accurate, is very encouraging. There’s also the fact that the travel industry is already very large and still growing. This could lead to some nice additional advantages in the long run.

Taking all parts of this opportunity together, it appears as though Trip360 is an intriguing prospect. The company intends to give travel brands a way to improve customers’ experiences while earning more money in the process. The platform certainly has potential if things go well, but it is undeniable that there are real and potentially significant risks facing it. Balancing these factors, Trip360 is a Neutral Deal at this time.

For questions regarding the KingsCrowd staff pick or ratings for this company, please reach out to support@kingscrowd.com. 

Analysis written by Daniel Jones.