Written by Alex Bredeen
Fuel Ventures leads a £1.17m pre-seed round in HolidayFox
The round was led by the SEIS Fund at Fuel Ventures, to help HolidayFox rapidly scale across the UK and Europe. The round included participation from Michael and Xochi Birch (Bebo), Redbus (Simon Franks, ex-Lovefilm), the Atomico Angel Fund, D Global Ventures, Shaan Puri and Cathexis Ventures, as well as a number of angels from Monzo, Talentful, Deliveroo, Ski Famille and Blockfi.
What is HolidayFox?
HolidayFox is a double-sided online marketplace to list, discover, and book campsites. HolidayFox enables any campsite in the world to fully manage its online presence, oversee availability, accept bookings online and receive payments. Consumers can browse HolidayFox to find and book a campsite based on location and personal interests. From a grass tent pitch, through to a wooden treehouse, HolidayFox has something for everyone.
During his time as CTO of Wimdu (Airbnb competitor), co-founder Jason Green, realised that camping holidays are underserved by existing tech solutions. With over ten years of experience scaling tech businesses, founders Jason Green and Richard Hooker have launched HolidayFox and are ready to rapidly scale across Europe.
Connecting Campsites to the Internet
The UK camping market is worth $2.2bn, and $15bn across Europe. However, online booking is available at only 28% of camping and caravan sites in Europe, compared to 79% of hotels. Finding and booking campsites can be a painful process. Many are offline, hard to find, and difficult to book.
HolidayFox is on a mission to help British and European campsite owners elevate their online presence by making bookings and camping holiday planning a whole lot easier. Using their system, campsite owners can manage their personal page, add new photos, take bookings, oversee cancellations and offer additional extras like firewood, food, fire pits and all sorts of other exciting things.
Meet the founders
Jason Green is an expert in scaling tech businesses, with over 15 years of experience working at a number of successful tech startups. Jason is the former CTO of Excalibur Group (Wowcher, Living Social, Secret Sales), Dawanda (now Etsy), Wimdu (Airbnb competitor), Brainly and Checkatrade. As a serial CTO, Jason ran product, design, development and data teams. As a camping enthusiast, Jason seeks to combine his experience in traveltech and scaling startups to help the camping sector adapt to the digital era.
Richard Hooker has a background in enabling tech businesses to develop scalable tech products. Richard worked as a senior solutions engineer at Funding Circle and Not On The High Street, building scalable tech for two businesses that went on to gain unicorn status. As the CTO of HolidayFox, Richard has applied his knowledge in scalable tech to design a solution that will grow rapidly across Europe.
A Post-Covid Comeback for Traveltech
HolidayFox was founded during the Covid-19 pandemic. HolidayFox strategically launched in the UK in March 2021, as the national lockdown came to an end. Camping’s popularity has reached an all time high, with people eager to spend more time outdoors. HolidayFox makes it easier for holidaymakers to find and book camping trips and outdoor activities across the UK.