Channel 4 invests airtime in a Bristol-based holiday marketplace TravelLocal

TravelLocal, the Bristol-based B2C online marketplace for tailor-made holidays has announced that Channel 4, the British TV broadcaster, has just invested in the company, via its Commercial Growth Fund. Channel 4 joins existing investment funds, Active Partners and Gresham House Ventures, in backing the business. 

Founded in 2016 by Tom Stapleton, Huw Owen, and Mark Hudson, the TravelLocal web platform predominantly operates within the mid to long-haul holiday market, focusing on private itineraries for mid to high-end clients. This segment of the travel market is boosted by increasing appetite for experiential travel, particularly amongst the over-45 demographic. According to the TravelLocal, the potential UK market is expected to hit £3.9 billion this year, with the US market is over £6 billion. 

TravelLocal is connecting clients directly with hand-picked travel experts based in each of its almost 50 destinations worldwide. This bypasses the traditional UK-based middleman, delivering better expertise and fairer value, while at the same time contributing more to the local economy.

Channel 4’s Commercial Growth Fund offers high-growth digital companies commercial airtime across its network of TV channels in return for an equity share in each business. Vinay Solanki, head of Commercial Growth Fund at Channel 4, commented: “Growth phase businesses like TravelLocal are typical of the digital disruptors which our Commercial Growth Fund seeks to support, enabling access to TV advertising-driven awareness at scale.”