Company type | Dutch limited liability company (B.V.) |
---|---|
Industry | sharing economy, tour guide |
Founded | 2013 |
Headquarters | Eindhoven, Netherlands |
Key people | Matthijs Keij (CEO) Marijn & Willem Maas (Co-founders) |
Products | Private tours, local travel experiences |
Website |
withlocals |
Withlocals is an experiential travel company that connects travellers to local hosts who offer private, personalised tours. [1] [2] [3] Describing itself as trying to achieve "mass personalisation" [4] [5] rather than offering group or package tours, [6] Withlocals is cited as an example of the role and impact of the sharing economy on tourism [7] – particularly culinary tourism [8] [9] – and the consumer trends for "authenticity" and "experiences". [10] [11] [12] [13]
Founded in 2013 by brothers Marijn and Willem Maas in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, [14] [15] the company was supported by startup accelerator Greenhouse group. it obtained $500,000 seed funding from Digital Equity group [16] and a grant from the Horizon 2020 program. [17] It began operations by specifically targeting a market for sharing home cooked dinners across seven countries in Southeast Asia. [18] [19] It later received Series A funding of €3.5 million ($4.3M) in 2017, at which time it reported to offer 1,200 tour options with 900 local hosts in 24 cities – having changed focus to personalised tour guides. [20] In 2019 it secured Series B funding of a further €8 million at which time it was active in 30 cities. [21] [22] Both rounds were supported by Dutch investment company INKEF Capital [23] and the latter by Keen Venture Partners. [24] A priority of the latest round of investment is to improve the Software localisation and range of tours offered in languages other than English. [25] As of mid-2019, Withlocals has more than 50 employees. [26]
As of mid-2019 the Withlocals platform has hosts offering tours in the following cities: [27]
Asia
Australia
Europe
North America
South America
Company type | Dutch limited liability company (B.V.) |
---|---|
Industry | sharing economy, tour guide |
Founded | 2013 |
Headquarters | Eindhoven, Netherlands |
Key people | Matthijs Keij (CEO) Marijn & Willem Maas (Co-founders) |
Products | Private tours, local travel experiences |
Website |
withlocals |
Withlocals is an experiential travel company that connects travellers to local hosts who offer private, personalised tours. [1] [2] [3] Describing itself as trying to achieve "mass personalisation" [4] [5] rather than offering group or package tours, [6] Withlocals is cited as an example of the role and impact of the sharing economy on tourism [7] – particularly culinary tourism [8] [9] – and the consumer trends for "authenticity" and "experiences". [10] [11] [12] [13]
Founded in 2013 by brothers Marijn and Willem Maas in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, [14] [15] the company was supported by startup accelerator Greenhouse group. it obtained $500,000 seed funding from Digital Equity group [16] and a grant from the Horizon 2020 program. [17] It began operations by specifically targeting a market for sharing home cooked dinners across seven countries in Southeast Asia. [18] [19] It later received Series A funding of €3.5 million ($4.3M) in 2017, at which time it reported to offer 1,200 tour options with 900 local hosts in 24 cities – having changed focus to personalised tour guides. [20] In 2019 it secured Series B funding of a further €8 million at which time it was active in 30 cities. [21] [22] Both rounds were supported by Dutch investment company INKEF Capital [23] and the latter by Keen Venture Partners. [24] A priority of the latest round of investment is to improve the Software localisation and range of tours offered in languages other than English. [25] As of mid-2019, Withlocals has more than 50 employees. [26]
As of mid-2019 the Withlocals platform has hosts offering tours in the following cities: [27]
Asia
Australia
Europe
North America
South America