New online cruise booking site launches with $10M from prominent investors

After one year of beta testing, Cruisebound, a new online travel agency for cruise travel, is launching today with $10 million in Series A funding.

The funding is led by former Booking Holdings chairman and Priceline CEO Jeff Boyd and PAR Capital Ventures, with participation from Tripadvisor founder and former CEO Steve Kaufer, Concur founder and Madrona Venture Group managing partner Steve Singh, Link Ventures founder Dave Blundin, Plug & Play Ventures and several others. Boyd is joining the Cruisebound board.

Cruisebound, led by co-founder and CEO Pierre-Olivier Lepage, says it offers the customer service of an offline agency with the price comparison and instant booking of an online travel agency. The site is targeting first time cruisers with a mobile-first approach that is intended to appeal to millennial and Gen Z travelers.

Cruisebound says during its year of beta testing, 91% of bookings were made on a mobile device.

Users can compare prices, itineraries, ships and cabin types from major cruise lines including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises and MSC. Every booking includes live, post-booking customer service through phone, text and email. 

“When booking my first cruise, I was surprised at how difficult it was to research and book online - and nearly impossible on a mobile device. My go-to travel sites for booking flights and hotels are not designed to sell a complicated cruise product. This is clearly a leading factor in the divide between cruisers and non-cruisers,” Lepage says. 

“We designed Cruisebound to sell cruises and only cruises. We offer an easy-to-use site that is optimized for mobile, which is where younger travelers prefer to research and book vacations. Then we combine the instant booking of an online travel agency with the live customer service of an offline agent.”

Cruisebound has now raised a total of $12.7 million. Lepage says the company will use the latest funding to improve the customer experience through product innovation and for marketing to reach first-time cruisers.

“Technology companies have improved the travel planning and booking process for consumers in flights, hotels, vacation homes and tours and there is an opportunity for our experienced and innovative team to build scale with a single-minded focus on building the best consumer experience in cruises,” Boyd says.

“The founders of Cruisebound have a proven track record of solving customer pain points by leveraging data science and experimentation to build great products. I am confident that Cruisebound will drive new customers to an industry recovering from the pandemic and launching record levels of new ships.”

Cruisebound’s founding team also includes Rocket Travel co-founders Jay Hoffman and Bjorn Larsen. Advisors include Agoda co-founder Bryan Lewis, Priceline Partner Network co-founder Andrew Loewen and Atle Skalleberg, former COO of Flight Centre Travel Group.