Blueprint Partners Partners announces the entry of Wonderbox into the capital of Funbooker, a fast-growing player in online booking of leisure activities.
An online booking platform for leisure experiences and activities, Funbooker is continuing its ambitious development strategy and is welcoming Wonderbox to its capital, which is also providing nearly €3 million in capital. Blueprint Partners acted as exclusive advisor to Funbooker.
The founders – Julien Ampollini, Eric Abouaf and Guénolé Wendling – remain at the helm of the company, with the ambition of building a leading player in Europe in online leisure booking.
For Funbooker, this is a significant new step in its growth strategy. Launched in early 2018 after a 2-month pilot phase and a seed fundraising from leading investors in the French digital ecosystem, Funbooker saw its turnover triple in 2019. With an annualized rate of €4M, more than 4,000 online offers at the end of 2019 and more than 30,000 reservations, Funbooker plans to triple its activity again in 2020 and to strengthen its leadership in group reservations as a priority: children's birthdays and Team Building for companies.
Beyond its expertise in the leisure and gift sectors, Wonderbox will be able to provide the start-up with numerous synergies, both in terms of the catalogue of offers and in terms of distribution. While the primary objective is to support Funbooker's rapid growth in France, Wonderbox's presence in 12 countries is a definite asset in facilitating the start-up's international development.
Following the acquisitions in 2019 of Cofre Vip (Spain), Regal'Box (Italy), Go Dream (Denmark), and the investments in Travel Stadium (France) and Coffrets Prestige (Canada), the Wonderbox Group confirms its ambitions in the leisure and gift box sectors.
“This operation is the result of a meeting with a team of passionate entrepreneurs and experts in our field. We wanted to find the partner best able to support Funbooker's ambitious growth strategy. With Wonderbox, we found the ideal sparring partner, beyond the simple financial aspect.”
Julien Ampollini
“This investment fits perfectly with Wonderbox's growth strategy. After a very busy year in 2019 in terms of external growth, we are continuing our development in 2020, by becoming the reference shareholder of Funbooker, a 100% digital company with very robust technological assets that offer it prospects for rapid development in the leisure sector and a real complementarity with Wonderbox. ”
Fabrice Lépine
“The Funbooker management team convinced us of the correctness of its approach on this Marketplace subject: clarity of vision and positioning on local activities, speed and excellence of execution, maturity of the platform and finally profitability of the model.”
Marc Chancerel
