Aarhus startup raises 24 million DKK: Has only existed for one year

Adam Feil
February 9, 2024

Adam Feil

@Adam

This post is also available in: Danish

The experience industry has a market value of billions of dollars, but many companies in the industry are still not digitized. In 2023, Skift Megatrends claimed that the experience industry is the industry that lags behind the most when it comes to technology.

Aarhus startup Holdbar is trying to change that. They want to create a complete software solution for experience providers that brings together everything they need to promote and sell their experiences.

Now, the company has raised a Seed roundA seed round is an early stage of fundraising in which a startup secures external capital to develop its business concept and create a minimum viable product. More of DKK 24 million, which will be used to further develop the platform.

“Experiences are the fastest growing sector in the tourism and travel industry. Especially the younger generation prioritizes experiences over material purchases, and by developing a platform that helps experience providers increase their commercial output and improve their administration, they can create a healthier business,” says co-founder and CEO Lasse Kjær, who sold Truestory to Smartbox Group in 2023 after founding the company in 2012.

Experienced investors

The round is funded by Seed Capital and firstminute capital, founded by Brent Hoberman, who in 2005 sold the booking platform lastminute.com for 1.1 billion dollars. In addition, Christoph Deckert and Steve Fredette, founders of Toast, Inc. have also invested.

“We are incredibly excited to have such an experienced team on board. Toast is one of the companies we greatly admire because they have built what we are trying to build, but in the restaurant industry. Now we’re going to start developing and scaling the platform so that operators around the world can streamline and grow their business,” says Lasse Kjær.

Experiences of the future

With an increased demand for experiences, the experience industry needs the right tools and infrastructure to embrace industry evolution and succeed.

“What Shopify has done for e-commerce brands over the last decade, Holdbar hopes to provide the infrastructure that enables small businesses in the tourism and experience industry to run their business, independent of large online travel agencies. Holdbar’s tool enables SMEs to engage directly with their customers on the platforms they prefer; websites, social media, chat systems. Over the next decade, businesses will need to own their own data and run their own software if they are to benefit from AI. That’s why we believe that Holdbar can help small businesses in the experience industry with that evolution,” says Brent Hoberman, co-founder and managing partner of firstminute capital.