Trip Boutique Closes Seed Round to Drive Personalization in Travel

Zurich, Switzerland, August 19, 2020 / TRAVELINDEX / The award-winning Swiss travel tech startup The Trip Boutique (Re.frame AG) announces the successful closing of its seed round. Led by Business Angel Peter H. Müller, founder of Start Angels Network (SAN) the round also included other high-proﬁle angel investors from the travel and tourism industry, such as:

● Samih Sawiris, founder and chairman of the Board of Orascom Development Holding and majority shareholder at the German travel operators FTI Group and Raiffeisen Touristik Group;
● Susanna Lemann, founder of the luxury travel company Matueté and board director at
the Lemann Foundation and Roger Federer Foundation;
● Elisabeth Stevens, a former director at Booking.com.

“The commitment from the investors amidst challenging times for the travel industry shows that they strongly believe in our value proposition and growth potential. They are convinced that the service that we are building has an even higher relevance in the new context of tourism”, says Fernanda Barrence Mutz, CEO and co-founder of The Trip Boutique. Samih Sawiris adds: “The Trip Boutique has a future-oriented idea and there is clear market demand. I believe that this team has the talent and smarts to take it to the next level”.

Founded in 2017 and with ofﬁces in Zurich (Switzerland) and Kiev (Ukraine), The Trip Boutique is a modern travel advisory platform, leveraging technology to create a better way of traveling. By innovatively combining AI with human expertise, The Trip Boutique has built a suite of proprietary tools and a matching technology to identify the hotels, restaurants, bars, cafés, activities, attractions and experiences in a destination that best ﬁt each client’s interests, lifestyle and tastes. A custom-made and bookable travel itinerary is designed and delivered to each traveler, so they can enjoy the luxury of a personal travel advisory service at their ﬁngertips, at an accessible price.

The Trip Boutique was recognized in 2019 by the Hospitality Technology Forum Switzerland as the “Most Promising Swiss Start-up” and by World Tourism Forum Lucerne as the “Most Innovative Travel Start-up” in a global competition under the category “Destination”. It also ranked as one of the Top 3 Startups at the “Best Travel Technology Award” by the Travel Industry Club Germany (TIC). In the last year, the company has also won over various established players in the industry for successful pilot partnerships. “This traction shows momentum and conﬁrms that The Trip Boutique is moving in the right direction”, Peter H. Müller comments.

The proceeds of the funding round will take the company well into 2021 and will be utilized to expand its portfolio of destinations, further develop its technology, and cultivate its growing customer base by establishing additional alliances with industry partners.

With the closing of the ﬁnancing round, The Trip Boutique also welcomes Susanna Lemann and Elisabeth Stevens to strengthen its board of directors. “It’s a privilege to have a group of experienced and dedicated board members who share our vision and add their unique experiences in the travel industry and in company building at scale”, says Fernanda Barrence Mutz. “Hyper-personalization has enormous, yet still untapped potential in the travel industry”, comments Elisabeth Stevens. “By using client data and algorithms, The Trip Boutique is creating the right tools to offer tailor-made experiences”, adds Susanna Lemann.