UK: Halal-friendly travel booking platform HalalBooking has closed another angel investment round of $2.5 million to add to its Series B round, helping the company to reach a valuation of $102 million.
HalalBooking has raised $7.5 million in the round so far, after a $5 million convertible loan invested in 2021 was converted into Series B shares at a 20 per cent discount from the company’s valuation. The round is capped at a maximum of $10 million and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
HalalBooking CEO Elnur Seyidli said: “This is still a relatively small angel round and the company’s cap table remains mostly under the ownership of the founders. This investment, combined with cash we generate from our healthy 17 per cent profit margin, will help us to accelerate our 2023-24 growth and be in a stronger position to reach our $1 billion unicorn goal sooner.
“There is a lot of interest from institutional investors, who have been closely watching our growth since the pandemic, which is leading us to consider a larger, institutional $30-40 million Series C round to further accelerate our growth rate. This would increase the likelihood of reaching the $1 billion goal in three to four years, rather than in, say, six to seven years of more organic growth,” he added.
The company reported a record sales month in July, reaching $10 million in sales overall – a 45 per cent on the same month a year ago.
After launching in 2014, HalalBooking has grown exponentially despite not raising venture capital [VC] funding, and it returned to profitability after the pandemic in 2021.
Earlier this year, the company raised more than €91,000 / $100,000 for those affected by February’s earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, as part of a Emergency Earthquake Appeal in cooperation with Islamic Relief UK.
HalalBooking offers halal-friendly hotel and villa accommodation on its website, including 500,000+ properties in more than 100 countries worldwide, which can be filtered according to halal needs such as availability of halal food and alcohol-free areas.
Leisure facilities such as beaches, pools and spas can also be filtered according to the degree of seclusion and the type of swimwear which can be worn, so that women and families can find the level of privacy which suits their requirements.
