Travel shopping platform

Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden

Founders: Lola Akinmade Åkerström and Sara Mansouri

Founding date: 2020

Investment: Bootstrapped

Local Purse is an award-winning web platform that supports travel guides, local artisans and cultural vendors by using live video shopping technology to host travelers around the world virtually.

Local Purse helps travelers save tons of money while reducing carbon footprints and environmental impact. We make travel equitable and accessible to a broader audience, facilitate cultural exchange, which is the most memorable part of our travels, and support six U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

Booking one experience on Local Purse gives up to six times back to local economies, so we are a true social impact startup as well.

PhocusWire coverage:

Founders Lola Akinmade Åkerström and Sara Mansouri

Strategic goals for 2022

We are creating both a painkiller and long term vitamin for the travel industry by leveraging a solid macro trend, which is the future of retail - live video shopping.

We are currently building a global marketplace that combines both virtual cultural experiences and live video shopping seamlessly.

With a market-validated solution and a solid profile of our go-to market customers, our strategic goal for 2022 involves securing funds so we can actively grow our community and onboard partnerships, continue to expand our customer base and continue to accelerate our offerings across more destinations including more remote locations.

Lessons learned over the last year

The last year has shown us the various blind spots of the travel industry. Through innovation, ingenuity and expertise, Local Purse has been able to create the perfect solution to tackle one of those blind spots while also providing equity and being a social impact startup at our core.

Local Purse is a minimal footprint solution that provides maximum impact travel.

Now, we hope the industry we love so much backs us up with the funds Local Purse deserves, to expand, grow, and bring positive equitable impact to lift up the industry and continue to digitalize it.