The problem
Airfares can swing hundreds of dollars in a day, and travelers have no way to know whether to book now or wait. Traditional booking sites just list today’s price; miss the window and you overpay, with non-refundable terms punishing any change of plans.
How it works
Hopper, founded in Montreal in 2007 by ex-Expedia executives Frederic Lalonde and Joost Ouwerkerk, is a mobile-first marketplace for flights, hotels, and rental cars. Its machine-learning models predict fare movements and advise users to buy or wait; at checkout it sells fintech protections like freezing a price or cancelling for any reason. Through its B2B arm Hopper Cloud, it syndicates the same pricing tech, fintech products, and agency content to partners including Capital One.
Pain points
Volatile opaque fares, use-it-or-lose-it bookings, and booking flows that offer zero timing guidance.
Business model
Standard OTA commissions on travel bookings, high-margin fintech ancillary fees, and B2B licensing and servicing fees from Hopper Cloud partners.
Challenges
The biggest risk materialized: Capital One, Hopper’s flagship B2B partner and an investor, brought the jointly built travel technology in-house in April 2026 with Hopper talent joining the bank. Hopper must now replace that volume, defend thin OTA margins against suppliers, and survive travel-demand shocks.
Funding
- Raised: $175M Series G (August 2021) led by GPI Capital with Glade Brook Capital, WestCap, Goldman Sachs Growth, and Accomplice.
- Valuation: $3.5B+ at the Series G (reported via TechCrunch).
Latest — April 2026
Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank told investors the bank now fully owns the travel technology built in partnership with Hopper and that the Hopper talent it worked with will join Capital One — shifting the flagship Hopper Cloud relationship in-house as Capital One pushes its travel offering against Amex and Chase.