San Francisco-based Liftopia, an online retailer of lift tickets and mountain resort activities, is today announcing it has raised $1.3 million in a round led by First Round Capital. New investors in today’s round also include Dave Morin and Chris Sacca, who participated with existing investors Erik Blachford and Sam Shank.
Today’s investment brings Liftopia’s total raise to nearly $3 million.
In short, Liftopia wants to do for ski lifts and other mountain-related activities what OpenTable did for dining reservations, the company says. It’s now working with 150 resorts across North America in an estimated $5 billion market. Europe, whose market is around four times the size, is also on the startup’s future roadmap.
For those unfamiliar with the service, Liftopia lets you buy your lift tickets online and in advance. By doing so, consumers can save up to 80% off the walk-up rates for the lifts. Resorts benefit too, by insuring against volatile weather conditions, snow conditions and other events that may keep skiiers away from the slopes.
The resorts participate in the system for free, but for each transaction, Liftopia keeps a portion of the revenue. The company says that over the past year, transaction volume and revenue have grown in the triple digits.
Currently, participating resorts are located in California, Colorado, Utah, New York, New England, British Columbia and Quebec, such as Park City, Winter Park, Aspen, Deer Valley, Snowbird, Mammoth, Kirkwood, Stowe, Sun Valley, Taos, Snowshoe, Mont Tremblant, Killington, Sunday River, Banff and Whiteface.
Investors in today’s round include, as noted above, First Round Capital, Sacca and Morin, as well as Sand Hill Angels, Sam Shank (founder of HotelTonight and TravelPost) and Erik Blachford (early Expedia employee and the former CEO of Expedia, Inc./IAC Travel; investor in Farecast, Zillow, Hipmunk and Room 77).