Canada / LatAm: Brazilian neobank and digital financial services platform, Nubank, is making its first step into the travel category by partnering with Canadian online travel agency and app, Hopper.
By partnering with Hopper, Nubank will offer a “comprehensive” travel portal within its existing Shopping platform, the company’s marketplace, to facilitate the day-to-day and financial planning of customers around the world. It will allow Nubank to venture beyond financial solutions and diversify its platform of products and services.
Expected to launch next year, the new travel portal is set to include a full range of travel booking options for mobile users as well as an end-to-end offering that will provide Nubank users with an increasingly seamless travel booking experience. The neobank’s customers will also be able to access Hopper’s price prediction technology and flexibility and protection products through the portal.
Nubank currently serves around 80 million customers across Latin America, in countries such as Mexico, Colombia and its native Brazil. Leveraging proprietary technologies and innovative business practices to create new financial solutions and experiences for individuals and small- and medium-sized enterprises [SMEs], the company aims to empower people to find the best deals and have more flexibility with a high level of service when planning their trips.
Meanwhile, Hopper is rapidly expanding in the Latin American market, with its app having already been downloaded more than 100 million times. Nubank becomes Hopper’s first B2B partner in Brazil, made available via Hopper’s B2B initiative, Hopper Cloud, which launched in 2021.
Dakota Smith, president and co-founder of Hopper, said: “This is a great partnership for Hopper Cloud, as we’ll have the opportunity to combine Hopper’s global travel and e-commerce expertise with Nubank’s innovative approach to digital financial services. We are seeing strong demand for these offerings from partners around the world. In fact, Hopper Cloud now comprises more than 50 per cent of Hopper’s overall business.”
Hopper recently made the news as its vacation rental and hotel supply relationship with Expedia Group was terminated, with the latter accusing the Canadian app of “exploiting consumer anxiety and confusing customers”.
Hopper’s technology already powers Capital One Travel [which launched in 2021 and includes Capital One’s marketplace of hotels and resorts exclusive to Venture X cardholders] and Premier Collection. In November, Hopper secured $96 million in a follow-up investment from Capital One [a long-time investor in the company] in order to continue building new social commerce initiatives aimed predominantly at younger travellers.
Earlier this week, Expedia Group announced a retail partnership with hypermarket and discount department store chain, Walmart. As a result, Expedia Group will power Walmart’s new travel website, WalmartPlusTravel.com, and Walmart+ [Walmart’s subscription program] members will have access to more than 900,000 properties, 500+ airlines, 100+ car rental companies, and “thousands” of activities around the world.
Other neobanks to enter the travel space in recent years include Stripe, which allows users to accept payments for direct bookings and bookings through major online travel agencies [OTAs] such as Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, and Revolut, which unveiled its Homes feature last October to offer cashback, expand its range of travel services, and take market share away from industry giants such as Airbnb.
Hopper and Stripe will both speak at the inaugural STRz Summit on Wednesday 18 October in London. Susan Ho, head of Hopper Homes, will speak about ‘Driving loyalty, attention and retention’ and James Lemon, global lead – travel, transport, leisure & automotive at Stripe, will discuss ‘The future of travel payment solutions’.
See the full event agenda here and book your tickets now at this link.
