Fundraising FoxSafara
5 known investors
Find your way into Safara
Sign up to find every way you can get introduced to Safara
- Your email: who you already know at Safara, and who your contacts know
- 2nd- and 3rd-degree connections: people you know who worked, studied or invested with the Safara team
- Your LinkedIn: the connections who can make the intro for you
We rank every route by how warm it is, so you raise on warm intros instead of cold emails.
Safara is a curated hotel booking platform that pays travelers cashback and sells direct-booking software to independent hotels.
Also known as Safara Travel
Founders & leadership
Investors · 5
How we know: sequoiacap.com · research · techcrunch.com · Not right? Tell us
How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us
Also in the syndicate · 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Safara operates a hotel booking platform and mobile app that pairs a curated selection of hotels with a cashback rewards program. The consumer marketplace lists more than one million bookable properties globally, while editorial and community-sourced curation highlights collections such as Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons, MICHELIN Key hotels, Relais & Châteaux and Leading Hotels of the World. Members earn cashback that starts at 2.5% and scales to 10%, redeemable toward a subsequent trip, and the company has promoted VIP perks at 3,000 hotels through its rewards program.
Following the December 2024 acquisition of Skipper, Safara also supplies software that powers shopping and checkout on independent hotels' own websites, positioning the product as an additional direct channel alongside a hotel's site. Boutique groups including Ace Hotels, Aparium Hotel Group, Bridgeton and Kirkwood Collection use the online reservations SaaS product. The company has said its plan is to connect the consumer marketplace and the hotel software so that guests who book direct on a hotel website can manage the reservation in the Safara app. Safara also publishes travel guides, city guides and interview-format editorial content on its blog.
Founding story
Doug Schuessler and Cody Rose worked together at restaurant booking platform Resy, which was acquired by American Express in 2019; Schuessler was Resy's chief revenue officer. After studying hospitality technology and concluding that independent hotels lacked the tools and network advantages of chains, the pair left Amex in 2021 and acquired the remnants of Safara, a company originally founded by Maya Poulton and Joey Kotkins that had shut down during COVID, then reshaped its concept and business model.
Business model
Safara runs a two-sided model: a consumer online travel agency that earns commission on hotel bookings and shares part of that commission back with travelers as cashback, plus a SaaS direct-booking product for hotels acquired with Skipper. Independent hotels using Skipper can access the platform commission-free, and the company has described the marketplace listing as an additional direct channel for properties.
Commission on each booking, consistent with the online travel agency industry standard of roughly 15-25% of reservation value, with a take rate described in 2023 as below industry standard because of revenue sharing with partners and limited scale. A premium subscription tier with additional perks was described as in development. The Skipper acquisition adds software revenue from hotels using the direct booking product.
Traction
As of May 2025 the company reported more than one million bookable properties in its marketplace app, over $100M in annualized gross merchandise volume, boutique group customers including Ace Hotels, Aparium Hotel Group, Bridgeton and Kirkwood Collection on its reservations SaaS, and a user base in which new users spend roughly $1,000 per booking and 65% stay in hotels more than four times a year. Its site later promoted VIP perks across 3,000 hotels.
Latest developments
The May 2025 announcement of the Skipper acquisition and additional funding from defy.vc, Sequoia Capital, Thayer Ventures and H20 brought total funding to $14M, with Skipper founders Jason Shames and Dane Bratz joining the company. The stated 2025 priority is deeper integration of the consumer marketplace and hotel software and scaling the number of hotels on the product. The company website subsequently advertised an expanded Safara Rewards program with VIP perks at 3,000 hotels, and the blog continues to publish guides and interviews.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Safara positions itself against large OTAs such as Booking, Expedia, Agoda, Trip, Trivago, Tripadvisor, Priceline and Kayak, which offer loyalty programs but do not curate properties, and against curated or luxury booking sites such as Tablet Hotels, Splendia, LuxuryLink and Secret Escapes. Its stated focus is empowering independent hotels with technology and network advantages comparable to those of chain groups.
Curated, hand-picked hotel listings selected on criteria such as uniqueness, design, amenities and location; a transparent cashback loyalty program scaling from 2.5% to 10%; near-global inventory coverage alongside curation; a focus on younger travelers and user-generated content; and, uniquely among consumer OTAs described in the sources, ownership of hotel-side direct booking software.
Technology
A consumer booking app and web marketplace combining data aggregation with community-sourced recommendations to curate hotel listings, a tiered cashback loyalty ledger, and Skipper's booking-engine software that powers shopping and checkout on hotel websites. The stated roadmap is to integrate the two so direct web bookings made on a hotel's site can be managed in the Safara app.
Go-to-market
Free consumer sign-up with a cashback rewards program as the primary acquisition hook, curated collection lists and editorial content including travel guides and insider interviews, a travel advisor channel and concierge service, and a mobile app. On the supply side, Safara sells its Skipper-derived reservations SaaS to boutique hotel groups and offers commission-free marketplace access to hotels running that software.
Two audiences: frequent, higher-spending leisure travelers, with new users reported to spend about $1,000 per booking and 65% staying in hotels more than four times a year, and skewing toward Gen Z and millennial demographics; and independent and boutique hotels and small hotel groups seeking direct booking technology and distribution.
Geography
Headquarters cited as Los Angeles in a 2023 profile and as New York City in a 2025 press announcement. Inventory spans hotels worldwide, including curated collections covering 80 countries for Preferred Hotels & Resorts and 47 countries for Four Seasons properties.
History
Sequoia Capital lists Safara as founded in 2021 and partnered in 2022, and as part of its Arc 2022 cohort. By mid-2023 the company had raised $7.3M from Sequoia Capital and defy.vc. In December 2024 Safara announced an undisclosed round led by Sequoia and defy.vc together with the acquisition of Skipper, bringing total funding to $14M. A May 2025 announcement reiterated the Skipper acquisition and additional funding from defy.vc, Sequoia Capital, Thayer Ventures and H20, with Skipper founders Jason Shames and Dane Bratz joining Safara.
Risks & controversies
The company competes with large online travel agencies whose marketing budgets vastly exceed those of independent hotels and smaller platforms, with Booking and Expedia alone reported to spend about $6 billion annually on marketing. Its commission take rate was described in 2023 as below industry standard because of its subscale position and revenue sharing with partners, making margins dependent on future growth. The Safara business was itself previously shut down during COVID before being acquired by its current founders.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 5
launches, deals, and filingsCompany site announces an upgrade to Safara Rewards allowing bookings with VIP perks at 3,000 hotels globally.
Announced alongside the Skipper acquisition; the company stated total funding to date of $14M.
$14M source ↗
Safara acquired Skipper, an online booking engine used by independent hotels; Skipper's co-founders Jason Shames and Dane Bratz joined Safara. Skipper's software powers shopping and checkout on hotel websites for customers including Ace Hotels, Aparium, Inness, Troutbeck, Marram, The Ameswell, Dawn Ranch and Kirkwood Collection.
Safara announced an undisclosed round led by Sequoia and defy.vc, bringing total funding raised to date to $14 million.
$14M source ↗
Doug Schuessler and Cody Rose left American Express in 2021 and acquired the remnants of Safara from original founders Maya Poulton and Joey Kotkins; the original Safara had shut down during COVID.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Safarasafara.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Safara do?
- Safara is a curated hotel booking platform that pays travelers cashback and sells direct-booking software to independent hotels.
- Who founded Safara?
- Safara was founded by Doug Schuessler.
- Who are Safara's investors?
- Safara's investors include Sequoia Capital, HTwenty, Thayer Ventures.