Another acquisition for Hopper

However, it is not this product that interests Hopper. “What interests us is their expertise in aerial systems. That is to say the ability to offer our products, in particular the one that allows you to freeze the price of a flight for several days, directly from the systems of the air carriers”, explains Frédéric Lalonde, founder and big boss of Hopper.

SMOOSS has only eight employees. This is Hopper’s fifth acquisition in the last 12 months. The value of the agreement is not disclosed, but this transaction is strategic because it should help the Hopper Cloud product penetrate the ecosystem of air carriers, a priority for Hopper in the years to come.

Hopper Cloud is a business-to-business (B2B) initiative where a vendor (hotel, airline, credit card issuer, etc.) can generate revenue by integrating Hopper’s offering.

The development of financial protection products for travelers means that Hopper is today considered a fintech (a fintech company).

The SMOOSS acquisition comes as Hopper is now valued at US$5 billion. This assessment is given to Hopper following the recent sale of shares by employees to a few large investors, such as Brookfield.

If this figure may seem huge, it remains relatively small given the market value of competitors Booking (100 billion US) and Expedia (30 billion US).

Hopper’s revenue grew more than 300% last year compared to 2020. Monthly revenue is now nearly four times higher than the highest level recorded before the pandemic began.

Hopper’s turnover exceeds 2 billion US. “We will quickly reach 4 billion, insofar as we are currently generating growth of 300%,” says Frédéric Lalonde.

He points out that Hopper Cloud and other business-to-business (B2B) initiatives already account for nearly 30% of revenue and are expected to generate 50% of revenue within a few years.

Created in 2007, Hopper was the most downloaded travel app last year in the United States, according to Apptopia. The app has been downloaded over 70 million times since its inception 15 years ago.

Frédéric Lalonde recalls that it was Hopper’s financial services that allowed the company to get through the pandemic, in particular the possibility of freezing flights and also of taking a non-refundable ticket or room and making it a refundable product.

“Our success is due to the data accumulated over the years allowing us to build risk models, like an insurance company, in real time, using artificial intelligence in order to sell unique products. . »

Hopper notably counts Investissement Québec, the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec and OMERS (the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Fund) among its investors.

Last month, Hopper announced an expansion into a new vertical niche with the addition of Hopper Homes, which offers rentals of a cottage, condo, house or apartment.

“Young people are more likely to stay in a residence or a house than a hotel. Due to demographics, we absolutely needed this offer. We already offer more than 2 million properties,” says Frédéric Lalonde.