Berlin-based travel site GoEuro bags multi-million dollar funding

Berlin-based travel comparison platform GoEuro today announced a multi-million dollar investment led by Lakestar and including an unnamed angel investor from the travel industry. The exact amount of the deal was not disclosed.

GoEuro, which allows users to compare the price and journey time of air, rail, and bus travel options in a single search, has had a bumper year.

The startup launched in May 2013 after announcing $4 million in seed funding from Hasso Plattner Ventures and Battery Ventures. It has since expanded its service beyond Germany to both the UK and Spain.

The startup claims it now serves almost 23,000 locations in these countries. It will use the latest funding round to launch in four more markets by summer 2014. In fact, GoEuro already has a position open on its jobs page for an Italian country manager.

On the funding, GoEuro CEO Naren Shaam said, “The Lakestar team brings to the company a strong background of B2C investment history and know-how, including the likes of Airbnb, Spotify, Skype, and Klarna. It is a vote of confidence not only for GoEuro but for the multi-mode travel space as a whole.

“Online travel has traditionally been dominated by websites focused on air, hotel, and car rental, but the growing capability of rail and bus operators has opened the door to platforms which compare and combine rail, coach, and air travel on one site.”

Although GoEuro has plenty of financial backing, it does find itself in a crowded industry in Europe. In its home town of Berlin the startup faces competition from Waymate, which launched last year and includes car travel, while Italian startup Wanderio also lists the CO2 emissions for each option.

Successfully building these comparison platforms is no easy task, mostly because it requires relationships with large, beaurocratic travel organizations that often don’t want to give out proprietary data.

It does, however, have the potential to be very lucrative for the startup that manages to edge out its competition. When we talked to him last year, Shaam claimed the online travel market is worth roughly $320 billion in Europe.

For related posts, check out 

• Online travel planner GoEuro rolls out in the UK with a solid partnership
• European travel comparison site GoEuro launches following $4m seed funding
• Online travel planner GoEuro announces $4m seed funding from Battery Ventures and Hasso Plattner

This story originally appeared on VentureVillage. Copyright 2014