A travel-booking startup, Hopper, is in talks with banks about arranging a credit facility of $200 million ahead of a potential public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
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The people who asked not to be identified because of the plans aren't public, said that the Montreal-based company may pursue a listing as early as next year. One of them said that the price of a house could be valued at $5 billion, pending market conditions. No final decision is yet to be made, and Hopper may choose to remain private.
In August, a close held Hopper, which includes Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s growth equity arm, Capital One Financial Corp. and WestCap, said it completed a $175 million financing led by GPI Capital that valued it at more than $3.5 billion.
A credit line from Wall Street is usually preceded by an IPO. Banks that make big credit commitments with roles in their IPOs are often rewarded with better financing terms in exchange for better financing terms, according to companies with ambitions of going public.
In 2007, Hopper was founded by Joost Ouwerkerk and Chief Executive Frederic Lalonde, both former Expedia Group Inc. executives. The company said that it results in substantial discounts for travelers who are then enticed to become repeat customers. The platform has facilitated the planning of over 180 million trips and the app has been downloaded more than 64 million times, according to Hopper's website.
In August of this year, the company said that Fintech offerings represent a majority of its revenue and that it intends to pursue new travel categories such as home rentals and regional expansion in Europe. Hopper said at the time that its share of North America's air travel market exceeded pre-pandemic numbers.
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