Written by Alex Bredeen
Fuel Ventures invest £2 million in experiences booking platform Beyonk
We are delighted to announce that we have invested £2 million into London based start-up Beyonk, The Experiences Booking Platform. The £2 million funding round will be used to accelerate their growth.
So what is Beyonk?
Beyonk was founded with the mission to make it effortless to experience. Created out of frustration when trying to find and book local activities, Beyonk provides experience booking and marketing platforms to the experiences sector. Beyonk has two main user groups: tourism companies and third-party resellers. Tourism companies including attractions, activities, tours, events and festivals use Beyonk’s booking tools as a seamless way to maximise bookings, automate admin and to share their tickets to major tourism platforms. Third-party resellers use Beyonk to showcase thousands of local experiences to their large audiences to encourage travel and increase visitor happiness whilst supporting local tourism businesses.
Who are the founders?
Oscar White, CEO is an ex-strategy consultant with a competitive mindset, regularly competing in triathlon, ironman, ultra-marathon and endurance events. His passion for helping people go beyond the every day and to get active was demonstrated by his #tentman campaign where he was on major news channels and The One Show, whilst setting the World Record for the Fastest marathon whilst wearing a tent, raising awareness for the benefits of getting outdoors. Oscar met his co-founder Antony Jones (CTO) on a plane, whilst they were travelling to a camping trip and a sea kayaking adventure respectively. It was here where they discussed their passion for adventure and how difficult it was to find and book such experiences. At the time Antony was a CTO of a large blockchain company and left it behind to follow his passion in creating technology to make it easier to book experiences. Prior to this Antony has worked in various startups and companies and is a core maintainer and contributor to Svelte - a radical new approach to building user interfaces, and one of the most popular Javascript libraries in existence.
Why did they set up Beyonk?
Co-founders Oscar White and Antony Jones set up Beyonk to make it easier to go beyond the every day and to enhance lives through experiencing more.
White said; “Latest research shows 67% of global consumers would rather spend money on experiences over things, yet the market is highly inefficient and behind the times with ineffective and clunky tools. Beyonk has created a platform that empowers Experience Providers to excel online and minimise admin and by working with major tourism platforms, we’re able to add more value to businesses to help them attract visitors too.”
Beyonk already works with major tourism platforms including the National Parks, GWR, Ordnance Survey, Tourist Boards, Sporting Bodies and more, to help their large audiences book experiences with local companies. Beyonk has grown over 180% month on month, attracting hundreds of thousands of monthly customers and millions of pounds of bookings whilst reaching profitability and achieving glowing reviews from their business community.
What does the £2 million funding round mean for Beyonk?
The £2 million funding round will enable Beyonk to play a greater role in the tourism & leisure industry through driving connectivity between platforms and building tools for partners to drive more bookings and better manage relationships with customers.