Hopper, an app for predicting airfare and booking flights, is now flush with cash: The 6-year-old Montreal- and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company has raised a $61.2 million round led by Canadian fund CDPQ ($82M CAD).
“We are selling $1 million of air a day,” Hopper CEO Frederic Lalonde told VentureBeat in a phone interview. “We’re a full blown agency, not like Hipmunk, not like Kayak. Completely standalone.”
For every ticket Hopper sells, it takes a commission — the company won’t say how much. And Hopper also charges users a $5 fee per ticket. Lalonde says customers don’t mind the fee because “on average people save $50 a ticket.”
“Our main competitor is your laptop,” Lalonde added. He hopes Hopper, which is only available on mobile devices, will become the “largest and most used travel app in the world.”
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That’s why Hopper raised $61.2 million (on top of the $38 million it’s already raised). Lalonde says Hopper will triple its staff to 120 people next year, and the company plans to set up a “local presence” in 120 countries in order to find and sell low fares outside the U.S. and Canada.
