BeSpoke tour platform ‘OnVacation’ raises pre-Series A funding

South Korea-based bespoke tour platform ‘OnVacation(OV)‘ announced today that it has raised a pre-Series A funding from FastVentures. The amount of the investment is undisclosed.

OnVacation is a chat-based personalized travel platform that operates a concierge service that allows travelers to communicate their travel preferences and tastes via chat, and destination experts to create a tailor-made trip optimized for them. Customers can not only chat about travel, but also finalize their bookings. 

According to OnVacation, the domestic premium personalized travel market is worth about 10 trillion KRW. In the past, travel consultations and reservations were mostly conducted through travel agency call centers, but through the OnVacation customized travel platform, customers can easily consult and book premium customized travel by meeting with experts via chat. 

After opening the Jeju Island destination in October 2021, the company has been servicing overseas destinations since April last year, and currently, more than 300 bespoke tours are being paid per month. In addition, destinations with high purchase prices, such as Europe and the Americas, are also experiencing a 20% monthly increase in transactions.

The majority of OnVacation’s current users are premium travelers who are looking for package holidays based on five-star accommodation. Unlike traditional package deals, OnVacation offers standalone packages optimized for customers, and has directly partnered with more than 30 hotels around the world to provide differentiated products such as late checkout and free breakfast for customers who book custom packages.

Meanwhile, OnVacation was founded by Kang Young-seok, a serial entrepreneur in the travel tech sector who worked at Naver and Yanolja, to revolutionize the premium travel market.

A source from Fast Ventures said, “We expected the premium travel market to grow rapidly between inconvenient package travel that fits individuals into groups and free travel that is cumbersome to search for information and prepare for travel. We expect the OnVacation team to crack the existing travel market with its unique fast execution.”

“With this investment, we will advance our platform and system for customized travel, enabling various external partners to provide high-quality customized travel to OnVacation customers,” said Youngseok Kang, CEO of OnVacation. “We will grow to become the leading customized travel platform for premium travelers.”