Gone Glamping

September 4 2020

The great outdoors is appealing to many people who have been cooped up under stay-at-home restrictions. It’s no wonder that several booking services for camping and related services are reporting growth.

However, the surge in interest outpaced the acquisition of outdoor skillsets. Many people want to have the outdoor experience but with the hotel level white-glove service.

This is exactly where Glamping comes in. So-called “glamping” might boost outdoor travel numbers as many people experiment with it for the first time as adults.

This type of Glamping service gives people an ideal combination of freedom, comfort, and convenience. Despite the societal upheaval of the last few months, the human desire to travel and explore remains unchanged. Why shelter in place when you can shelter in paradise.

Many promising startups have also raised funding during the pandemic and experienced a surge in recognition and revenue. Investors are noticing the trend. “I have two predictions about the travel market,” tweeted Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Gurley. “Airbnb will rebound much quicker than traditional lodging, and camping will explode as an alternative to both.”

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Glmaping Startups:

AutoCamp, a Santa Barbara-born startup, offers an outdoor glamping experience in which guests get cozy in deck-out Airstreams and luxury canvas tents. The company recently opened its newest location just outside Yosemite National Park. Right now the camp is open for preview stays. Guests can hibernate in 15 luxury tents, three cabin suites, or 80 deluxe Airstream trailers on AutoCamp’s property. There are also five ADA accessible suites designed by Los Angeles-based M-Rad Inc. Each site comes with its own fire pit with compressed logs to reduce smoke and fire danger.

Tentrr is a three-year-old, 47-person company that’s promising to make it “dirt simple” to enjoy the great outdoors. How: by striking deals with private landowners who are willing to host semi-permanent campsites on their property. Tentrr — founded by one-time investment banker Michael D’Agostino — has raised $13 million to date, including a newly closed $8 million Series A round led by West, a San Francisco-based venture studio that both funds startups and helps them market their goods and services.

Hipcamp is an online marketplace company that offers outdoor stays and camping experiences via a website and mobile app. Private landowners primarily list campsites, glampsites, RV space, cabins for users to discover and book based on the listing type, location, landscape, activities offered, and amenities.

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Since last week, PrivCo has added:
634 Companies | 74 M&A Deals | 289 Funding Activities

Funding & Deal Highlights:

Cisco announced that the company intends to purchase BabbleLabs to improve its video meeting experience with WebEx. The acquisition will close in Q1 of 2020, pending closing conditions and approvals. When the deal finalizes, the BabbleLabs team members will join the Cisco Collaboration Group. SVP and general manager Javed Khan leads the group which ultimately sits within the Cisco Security and Applications Business led by Jeetu Patel.

ACADIA Pharmaceuticals is adding a novel pain portfolio to its pipeline through the acquisition of Texas-based CerSci Therapeutics for $52.5 million. The acquisition is expected to bolster ACADIA’s clinical pipeline to include non-opioid pain therapies that have potential non-addictive properties and reduced side effects typically seen with current opioid treatments.

Avalon.ai, an AI-based enterprise software, and data analytics company that supports business, government, educational, and healthcare silos, has announced today the closing of a $1.5 million seed round investment. The investment round is led by pharmaceutical company, Pacira BioSciences, Inc., along with additional investments across the health, research, and bioscience industries. The capital from this investment round will be used to further expand the reach of Avalon.ai in both the U.S. and Europe, and as part of the agreement, Pacira Chief Customer Officer Dennis McLoughlin will join the Avalon.ai board.

Multiplatform live streaming tool Restream launched its Restream Studio broadcasting production center Thursday, buoyed by a $50 million Series A round of financing.

Warby Parker, the optical e-commerce giant, has today announced the close of a $245 million funding round from D1 Capital Partners, Durable Capital Partners, T. Rowe Price, and Baillie Gifford.

Narrative has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding and is launching a new product designed to further simplify the process of buying and selling data.

Berbix secured a $9 million Series A round of funding to continue developing its instant identity verification platform. The company was founded in 2018 by Eric Levine and Steve Kirkham, two former Airbnb trust and safety team leaders. Berbix creates an ID verification tool that uses machine learning techniques to instantly spot fraud that no human eye can detect, replacing a manual review process and validating an identification in two seconds or less.

Shopmonkey, a San Jose, California-based software company serving the automotive industry, has raised $25 million in its Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from Index Ventures, e.ventures and I2BF—bringing the total capital raised to $35 million in just 11 months. Byron Deeter from Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the leading investors in SaaS and cloud companies, will be joining the company's board of directors.

Triumvira Immunologics Inc., an Austin, Texas-based biopharmaceutical company developing a novel platform for engineering T-cells to attack cancers, completed a USD $55m Series A financing round.

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