Led · Seed · Feb 2024

Nicer is a San Juan, Puerto Rico-based company that provides a travel planning and booking platform and agency. The product combines traditional travel advising with artificial intelligence and robotic process automation to empower travel advisors and modernize travel experiences. Led by CEO Ragan Stone, the company positions its technology to elevate human-led travel advice rather than replace it. Nicer intends to use its recent funding to scale travel advisors using its platform and automation tools. The company maintains a board and advisors composed of senior travel and tech figures, including Shane O’Flaherty (Global Director of Travel, Microsoft), Angie Licea (President, Global Travel Collection, an Internova company), Gilad Berenstein (Founder, Brook Bay Capital), Javier Villamizar (Operating Partner, Softbank), Lee Thomas (former COO of ALTOUR), and Carlos Garcia (General Partner, Trip Ventures).

Participated · Seed · Feb 2023

El Camino was founded and is led by Colombian-American industry veteran Katalina Mayorga alongside Justin Bridges, and evolved from a traditional small-group travel company into an experiential marketplace for women. The platform curates highly curated multi-day small-group trips to destinations like Morocco, Guatemala, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Egypt, Bolivia, and Greece, with an average order value of $3,400. The company also offers an annual membership, the El Camino Clubhouse, at $99 per year for travel recommendations, curated guides, and a moderated community. Since launch El Camino has generated millions in revenue and reported 172% revenue growth from 2021 to 2022, driven in part by rising interest in solo female travel. The business is positioning itself to modernize the small-group travel sector and target the $360B tours and experiences market through technology and curated inventory expansion. Funds from the recent round will be used to accelerate marketplace technology development, expand inventory, and build brand awareness.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2022

Naya Homes operates a technology-driven vacation rental management platform that lists properties across more than 15 OTAs, including Airbnb, Booking.com, Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy and Vrbo. The company manages over 400 properties—apartments, houses, villas and vacation units—and has hosted more than 25,000 guests. It operates without lease arbitrage or minimum guarantees, using engineering, data science and process-driven operations to provide transparency and drive profitability for property owners. In less than two years since inception the company has doubled its growth targets and expects to triple growth over the next 12 months. Naya Homes is expanding its footprint across Mexico and will use new funding to launch operations in ten additional travel destinations including Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Venturas, Puerto Morelos, La Paz, Todos Santos, Puerto Escondido, Acapulco, Valle de Bravo and San Miguel de Allende. Existing markets include Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit, Mexico City and Los Cabos. Naya Homes operates a vacation and short-term rental management platform that serves real estate investors and homeowners across a range of property types, from individual apartments to vacation villas. The company positions itself as an asset-light operator that avoids master leases used by some Latin American incumbents and aims to maximize profitability for varied properties. Naya began operations in Puerto Vallarta in August and plans to launch in Mexico City with a 15-unit building in Polanco in September. Its founding team includes two former Uber staffers and several former Uber Latin America executives are involved as investors. The startup faces competition from regional players including Despegar (which has expanded its vacation rentals portfolio) and Mexico City–based Casai. Financially, Naya has raised a $5 million funding round following a $600,000 pre-seed in March 2022.