Local excursions provider Much Better Adventures, co-founded in 2012 by one of TTG’s 30 Under 30 alumni, is seeking further investment in order to step up its growth plans.
The company connects local independent tour guides and hosts with the international traveller market, ensuring that more of the revenue contributes to the local economy.
Since launch, Much Better Adventures has sent more than £10m in sales to its micro-local tour operators around the world, with options ranging from kayaking in the Norwegian fjords to trekking Mount Toubkal treks and rafting in Nepal.
Sam Bruce and his business partners have previously secured angel funding and seed fund investment for the business, and are now looking to the platform’s own community to help fund the next stage.
Bruce said: "We sent an email out to our fast-growing community to gauge interest and the response totally blew us away. We’re really excited about this next step on our journey and love the idea of our amazing network of adventurers, hosts and the crowd joining with experienced investors in owning a piece of the Much Better pie and helping us build the leading adventure travel brand."
A public Crowdcube page goes live tomorrow (November 2, 2017), following a private 24-hour window for community members today.
In the last 12 months, the company has booked 6,518 passengers, and seen repeat bookings increase by 258%, with customers booking on average 2.4 trips each per year.
Bruce added: “In an experience-hungry world, everyone is an adventurer seeking to do more with their limited free time. We assess the global spend on adventure, active and nature travel worldwide to be over £455 billion, and to be growing 65% each year, with the UK alone spending £18billion per year. We believe there is no established online platform serving this market, yet. We want to build the global leader for adventure.”
The team is led by chief executive Alex Narracott, chief technology officer Guy Bowden, and chief marketing officer Sam Bruce.
Sam Bruce takes part in TTG’s Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders Conference next week on the Wednesday of World Travel Market. Limited places for this free-of-charge conference are still available.