- Culture Trip is a British tech startup providing a travel inspiration platform.
- The website was started in 2011 by former psychiatrist Kris Naudts.
- Culture Trip has since raised over $100 million in funding.
About Culture Trip
Dr Kris Naudts founded Culture Trip in 2011. Naudts worked alongside his team for four years to develop the concept. The result was the Culture Trip travel inspiration platform which provides thousands of curated culture guides and features. The platform aims to inspire people to go beyond their cultural boundaries and connect with the world around them. The Culture trip mission is to help people experience what’s special and unique about a place, its people and its culture. The site covers media on a range of cultural topics including food, fashion, music, museums and films.
In 2015, the startup secured $2 million in seed funding, and in 2016 they raised $20 million from PPF Group in a Series A funding round. A further capital injection of $80 million propelled Culture Trip’s hypergrowth in 2018. The platform has since seen record-breaking acceleration and an increase in unique monthly site visitors from 4 million to 15-20 million. The app downloads also leapt from 50,000 to over 2.5 million. London-based Culture Trip now has additional offices in New York and Tel Aviv, employing a total of around 300 staff.
How Does It Work?
The tech firm produces the Culture Trip travel platform, which is accessible online or through their mobile app. The content includes guides, features and clickable lists as resources for travellers. Culture Trip distributes a vast volume of resources with around 3000 articles, photography, illustration and animation published each month. The output also includes video series, original feature films, special reports and magazines. Over 300 freelancers around the world create the resources, managed by an in-house editorial team, which also generates content. They hope that this use of creativity and technology together will inspire people to plan a trip.
Culture Trip has launched further revenue streams, including an online travel agency. It aims to connect its audience with travel options with ease by presenting places to stay and things to do around the world.
Culture Trip in 2020
The coronavirus has had harsh effects on the entire travel industry, and it seems to be taking its toll on Culture Trip. The travel and entertainment startup has confirmed that it plans to make some redundancies, but the exact number of staff laid-off remains unclear. Culture Trip has said that it will be less than half of the UK workforce, currently between 200 and 300 people.
