CEO Highlight: Pere Vallès of Exoticca

Exoticca

Pere Valles joined Exoticca as CEO in 2015 and the corporate has since grown from 50 to 500 workers. In the past he held management roles within the instrument area in addition to the executive monetary officer place at a Nasdaq-listed telecommunications corporate.

Exoticca raised €25 million in mission debt previous this 12 months having raised €60M in a Collection D spherical remaining 12 months. The Barcelona-based corporate is on a venture to wreck down its multi-day excursions into modules, infuse AI around the industry and force personalization.

Exoticca was once based in 2013 with a venture to disrupt the normal shuttle company marketplace.

Since then the corporate has begun making the industry into virtual, discovered a option to paintings with shuttle brokers, now the quickest rising a part of the industry, and attracted vital investment.

Pere Valles, who joined Exoticca as CEO in 2015, mentioned the corporate’s method to be a significant contender within the hooked up commute area however with a couple of parts and complicated itineraries, the specified generation funding and protecting buyers glad.

*Interview has been edited for brevity. 

You raised vital investment up to now 12 months, what have you ever earmarked that for?

We raised €85 million, €60 million in fairness and extra just lately €25 million in mission debt. The target is actually to transition the corporate from defining ourselves as a subsequent era excursion operator to being an actual participant within the hooked up commute area, particularly, with multi-day complicated, hooked up journeys. The way in which we perceive the hooked up is a commute that has a couple of parts and that has to to fulfill two standards. One is that those parts want to be organized in a definite order for the commute to make sense and 2nd and extra essential, is those other parts want to be synchronized, they usually want to stay synchronized always. We wish to be a participant on this box and this calls for an funding in generation.

There are 3 spaces during which we put money into generation. One is in modularizing our journeys. Our journeys are rather monolithic. Now we have 12-day journeys, we subdivide that commute in in two 3 days modules, in order that they may be able to be mixed with modules in different international locations. To be able to facilitate the design of the journeys by means of the buyer, we’re launching what we name the “AI Crafter,” which is an AI agent that assists the buyer in development the commute with other modules and personalizing the commute to the purchasers’ wishes. That is the first house of funding in generation, the second one house, which could also be associated with the hooked up commute has to do with the enjoy of the buyer on the vacation spot. We give the buyer an app, we name it the vacationers’ app which is sort of a virtual assistant that is helping the buyer throughout the nation and the buyer can be in contact without delay with the supplier of every carrier of the commute.

The 3rd house of funding in generation, additionally to do with the hooked up commute, is the place you have got many various suppliers as a result of you have got many various parts and you wish to have to give you the chance to automate your dating with some of these suppliers, automation of the products and services, the control of adjustments, the control of incidents and the invoicing between us and the suppliers. We’re operating on automating the entire again place of business processes with our suppliers. We will be able to scale the industry in an effective manner so actually the funding is to reposition the corporate. We wish to evolve from this excursion operator idea to one thing that I feel is extra related as of late, and this calls for vital funding in generation, each in AI and non-AI.

Do you spot yourselves extra as a TUI or a Reserving.com? 

We see ourselves as a Reserving.com that connects the other verticals inside shuttle. Now not simply lodging or flights, but additionally different verticals, like native products and services, transfers, actions and the guides which can be supplied by means of firms in a vacation spot. We attach the entire other parts of a commute whilst Reserving, perhaps will promote you a resort, a flight and an task, and you’re the one this is connecting all the ones parts. We’re doing it for you. So we’ve got parts of each as a result of TUI is performing as main with the buyer once they promote package deal. However the package deal could be very monolithic. So, we’ve got digitalized all that and we’re connecting the entire parts of a commute in some way that principally makes certain that the entirety is organized in a definite method, and the entirety stays synchronized always.

What do you suppose made you so sexy to buyers?

When you concentrate to firms like Reserving or Expedia and concentrate to their income calls, they point out the hooked up commute as the place they wish to pass. They’re superb at promoting very particular parts of a commute, however the place there may be actual price for the buyer is in with the ability to attach all the ones parts and with the ability to care for a unbroken enjoy.

We’re already there in some regard, we’re already promoting applications that had some of these parts. We’re chargeable for ensuring that the enjoy is a unbroken enjoy. However now we wish to do it at scale, and do it in an absolutely automatic manner the place the entirety is virtual, the entirety occurs robotically, in order that it may be executed at scale, which is what differentiates Exoticca from a conventional excursion operator the place the entirety is completed manually via name facilities which makes the scalability of the industry very difficult.

How some distance alongside would you are saying you’re for your AI adventure?

Our method to AI, I name it a “non-silver bullet means.” We take a extra granular means, we’ve got 14 squads within the generation division, and every squad is chargeable for a procedure within the corporate, so we’ve got embedded in every one of the most squads an individual in control of information and the way AI will give a boost to that procedure both by means of turning into extra environment friendly or by means of bettering the buyer enjoy. So we’ve got this means, which means that that we have got many AI tasks working concurrently perhaps every one in all them for my part isn’t a sport changer, however while you mix they all, it makes a large alternate.

How lengthy do you suppose this entire repositioning of the corporate goes to take?

I feel we’re midway already, as a result of we had been already doing a few of it. Now we have a good stage of automation in the entire again place of business processes and the entire conversation processes that we have got with the purchasers throughout the vacationers’ app. The target is, by means of the top of this 12 months, so to say we’ve got accomplished 90% automation in the entirety so we’re a hooked up commute participant.

Scale-wise, are you pondering a hooked up commute participant of the dimensions of Reserving.com or are you pondering a little bit extra area of interest?

It’s a just right level, anyplace you attach greater than two parts it’s a hooked up commute. The place I feel we’re extra aggressive is when the hooked up commute is complicated. Our area of interest of a hooked up commute is a commute that has between 20 and 30 parts, it has a special itinerary, the place you consult with a couple of puts, the place you wish to have a couple of accommodations, a couple of flights, actions, transfers. That is the place I feel it’ll be tougher for corporations like Reserving … or they are going to get there later and we will be able to already be there. That is our experience. The extra complicated, the extra aggressive we will be. 

Now we have a good stage of automation in the entire again place of business processes and the entire conversation processes that we have got with the purchasers throughout the vacationers’ app. The target is, by means of the top of this 12 months, so to say we’ve got accomplished 90% automation in the entirety so we’re a hooked up commute participant.

Pere Valles

What are your priorities for the corporate this 12 months? 

One phrase, expansion. We’re subsidized by means of mission capital price range. Those are those that need expansion. After they name you the number 1 query they ask you is “how a lot did you promote?”

Now we have 3 expansion levers. When Exoticca was once created, our purpose was once to get rid of the normal shuttle company. And we see that conventional shuttle companies are extra resilient than we anticipated on account of the human part. Persons are very just about their shuttle agent, particularly within the U.S. and Canada the place we paintings, they accept as true with the shuttle agent. 3 years in the past we discovered a option to spouse with conventional shuttle companies and as a substitute of giving them a brochure and a phone quantity to get a quote, we give them get admission to to a platform the place they may be able to create a suggestion for purchasers whilst they’re sitting in entrance of them. We name it our B2B and it’s already 20% of gross sales. It is the a part of the industry this is rising probably the most. So it is one of the most expansion levers for 2025. 

The second one expansion lever is geo enlargement. We’re founded in Barcelona however 75% of our shoppers are from the U.S. and Canada and in case you upload the U.Ok. it’s every other 15% so, 90% of our industry comes from 3 English talking markets. Why? As a result of for our style to paintings we want to create important mass of people who discuss the similar language, as a result of we create teams in every of our locations and the extra folks that talk the similar language, the extra teams we will create, the extra departure dates we’ve got and the simpler the conversion.

We wish to reflect the similar with Spanish talking vacationers. Spain is already 8% of our gross sales and we introduced in Latin The us just lately. We opened Mexico, Chile and Colombia and we’re launching extra international locations in the following few months. The 3rd expansion lever is one thing we initiated two years in the past in Canada, which is, as a substitute of the usage of huge quantities of cash to obtain shoppers, we wish to use part of our advertising finances to construct the logo. We use other channels, like tv. Now we have noticed all our metrics give a boost to considerably in Canada. Now we have logo consciousness in Canada of over 60% so we wish to reflect that during different markets and clearly the massive one is the U.S. 

What would you are saying are your demanding situations as a CEO of a shuttle corporate 

Stay the buyers glad. I’m no longer the founder, I joined seven years in the past because the CEO. Now we have an overly fragmented cap desk since the founder bought his stocks to mission capital price range. Now we have 11 price range as buyers. Protecting them glad method rising speedy. In every other industry in case you develop at 20% fee everyone is tremendous glad. In an organization this is mission subsidized this can be a failure. The second one problem is the best way to stay the similar tradition that we had 5 years in the past once we had been 50 folks, now that we’re 500. How can we care for that tradition? I imply the entrepreneurial spirit that startups have, the agility, the arrogance in making bets and taking possibility. 

What do you suppose are the broader demanding situations for the section of the trade that you just perform in?

It’s tremendous antiquated and it’s sudden that there is not any virtual chief. It’s ultra-fragmented no longer simplest in Europe but additionally within the U.S. and Canada. There are numerous small to medium sized excursion operators which have been round for a few years and I feel there’s a transparent alternative for consolidation on this trade via mergers and acquisitions. We’re pondering of rising via acquisitions and in shuttle measurement issues. One fast option to acquire that measurement is by means of obtaining different companies and those are companies which can be circle of relatives owned, have by no means raised capital, are successful and feature very unswerving shoppers.

However usually I feel the excursion operation style is antiquated. It’s in line with an easy premise which is first I’ll take capability and taking capability method I’m going to pre-buy rooms in accommodations and constitution flights. And, when I’ve the capability I’m going to search for call for which I feel is totally incorrect.

If you want to alternate something about Exoticca, what would it not be? 

I would possibly alternate the site. We’re actually a North American corporate while you have a look at the gross sales. We want to be nearer to the marketplace however what we’ve executed in Barcelona would value us two or 3 times extra within the Silicon Valley. We’re transferring a part of the chief staff to the U.S. to be nearer to the purchasers.

When you weren’t main Exoticca, what would you be doing?

I’ve a pricey pastime which is to speculate small exams in startups. I actually experience it, it lets in me to fulfill marketers, I’ve made 30 to 40 investments however I would possibly attempt to do it professionally.

Exoticca

Pere Valles joined Exoticca as CEO in 2015 and the corporate has since grown from 50 to 500 workers. In the past he held management roles within the instrument area in addition to the executive monetary officer place at a Nasdaq-listed telecommunications corporate.

Exoticca raised €25 million in mission debt previous this 12 months having raised €60M in a Collection D spherical remaining 12 months. The Barcelona-based corporate is on a venture to wreck down its multi-day excursions into modules, infuse AI around the industry and force personalization.

Exoticca was once based in 2013 with a venture to disrupt the normal shuttle company marketplace.

Since then the corporate has begun making the industry into virtual, discovered a option to paintings with shuttle brokers, now the quickest rising a part of the industry, and attracted vital investment.

Pere Valles, who joined Exoticca as CEO in 2015, mentioned the corporate’s method to be a significant contender within the hooked up commute area however with a couple of parts and complicated itineraries, the specified generation funding and protecting buyers glad.

*Interview has been edited for brevity. 

You raised vital investment up to now 12 months, what have you ever earmarked that for?

We raised €85 million, €60 million in fairness and extra just lately €25 million in mission debt. The target is actually to transition the corporate from defining ourselves as a subsequent era excursion operator to being an actual participant within the hooked up commute area, particularly, with multi-day complicated, hooked up journeys. The way in which we perceive the hooked up is a commute that has a couple of parts and that has to to fulfill two standards. One is that those parts want to be organized in a definite order for the commute to make sense and 2nd and extra essential, is those other parts want to be synchronized, they usually want to stay synchronized always. We wish to be a participant on this box and this calls for an funding in generation.

There are 3 spaces during which we put money into generation. One is in modularizing our journeys. Our journeys are rather monolithic. Now we have 12-day journeys, we subdivide that commute in in two 3 days modules, in order that they may be able to be mixed with modules in different international locations. To be able to facilitate the design of the journeys by means of the buyer, we’re launching what we name the “AI Crafter,” which is an AI agent that assists the buyer in development the commute with other modules and personalizing the commute to the purchasers’ wishes. That is the first house of funding in generation, the second one house, which could also be associated with the hooked up commute has to do with the enjoy of the buyer on the vacation spot. We give the buyer an app, we name it the vacationers’ app which is sort of a virtual assistant that is helping the buyer throughout the nation and the buyer can be in contact without delay with the supplier of every carrier of the commute.

The 3rd house of funding in generation, additionally to do with the hooked up commute, is the place you have got many various suppliers as a result of you have got many various parts and you wish to have to give you the chance to automate your dating with some of these suppliers, automation of the products and services, the control of adjustments, the control of incidents and the invoicing between us and the suppliers. We’re operating on automating the entire again place of business processes with our suppliers. We will be able to scale the industry in an effective manner so actually the funding is to reposition the corporate. We wish to evolve from this excursion operator idea to one thing that I feel is extra related as of late, and this calls for vital funding in generation, each in AI and non-AI.

Do you spot yourselves extra as a TUI or a Reserving.com? 

We see ourselves as a Reserving.com that connects the other verticals inside shuttle. Now not simply lodging or flights, but additionally different verticals, like native products and services, transfers, actions and the guides which can be supplied by means of firms in a vacation spot. We attach the entire other parts of a commute whilst Reserving, perhaps will promote you a resort, a flight and an task, and you’re the one this is connecting all the ones parts. We’re doing it for you. So we’ve got parts of each as a result of TUI is performing as main with the buyer once they promote package deal. However the package deal could be very monolithic. So, we’ve got digitalized all that and we’re connecting the entire parts of a commute in some way that principally makes certain that the entirety is organized in a definite method, and the entirety stays synchronized always.

What do you suppose made you so sexy to buyers?

When you concentrate to firms like Reserving or Expedia and concentrate to their income calls, they point out the hooked up commute as the place they wish to pass. They’re superb at promoting very particular parts of a commute, however the place there may be actual price for the buyer is in with the ability to attach all the ones parts and with the ability to care for a unbroken enjoy.

We’re already there in some regard, we’re already promoting applications that had some of these parts. We’re chargeable for ensuring that the enjoy is a unbroken enjoy. However now we wish to do it at scale, and do it in an absolutely automatic manner the place the entirety is virtual, the entirety occurs robotically, in order that it may be executed at scale, which is what differentiates Exoticca from a conventional excursion operator the place the entirety is completed manually via name facilities which makes the scalability of the industry very difficult.

How some distance alongside would you are saying you’re for your AI adventure?

Our method to AI, I name it a “non-silver bullet means.” We take a extra granular means, we’ve got 14 squads within the generation division, and every squad is chargeable for a procedure within the corporate, so we’ve got embedded in every one of the most squads an individual in control of information and the way AI will give a boost to that procedure both by means of turning into extra environment friendly or by means of bettering the buyer enjoy. So we’ve got this means, which means that that we have got many AI tasks working concurrently perhaps every one in all them for my part isn’t a sport changer, however while you mix they all, it makes a large alternate.

How lengthy do you suppose this entire repositioning of the corporate goes to take?

I feel we’re midway already, as a result of we had been already doing a few of it. Now we have a good stage of automation in the entire again place of business processes and the entire conversation processes that we have got with the purchasers throughout the vacationers’ app. The target is, by means of the top of this 12 months, so to say we’ve got accomplished 90% automation in the entirety so we’re a hooked up commute participant.

Scale-wise, are you pondering a hooked up commute participant of the dimensions of Reserving.com or are you pondering a little bit extra area of interest?

It’s a just right level, anyplace you attach greater than two parts it’s a hooked up commute. The place I feel we’re extra aggressive is when the hooked up commute is complicated. Our area of interest of a hooked up commute is a commute that has between 20 and 30 parts, it has a special itinerary, the place you consult with a couple of puts, the place you wish to have a couple of accommodations, a couple of flights, actions, transfers. That is the place I feel it’ll be tougher for corporations like Reserving … or they are going to get there later and we will be able to already be there. That is our experience. The extra complicated, the extra aggressive we will be. 

Now we have a good stage of automation in the entire again place of business processes and the entire conversation processes that we have got with the purchasers throughout the vacationers’ app. The target is, by means of the top of this 12 months, so to say we’ve got accomplished 90% automation in the entirety so we’re a hooked up commute participant.

Pere Valles

What are your priorities for the corporate this 12 months? 

One phrase, expansion. We’re subsidized by means of mission capital price range. Those are those that need expansion. After they name you the number 1 query they ask you is “how a lot did you promote?”

Now we have 3 expansion levers. When Exoticca was once created, our purpose was once to get rid of the normal shuttle company. And we see that conventional shuttle companies are extra resilient than we anticipated on account of the human part. Persons are very just about their shuttle agent, particularly within the U.S. and Canada the place we paintings, they accept as true with the shuttle agent. 3 years in the past we discovered a option to spouse with conventional shuttle companies and as a substitute of giving them a brochure and a phone quantity to get a quote, we give them get admission to to a platform the place they may be able to create a suggestion for purchasers whilst they’re sitting in entrance of them. We name it our B2B and it’s already 20% of gross sales. It is the a part of the industry this is rising probably the most. So it is one of the most expansion levers for 2025. 

The second one expansion lever is geo enlargement. We’re founded in Barcelona however 75% of our shoppers are from the U.S. and Canada and in case you upload the U.Ok. it’s every other 15% so, 90% of our industry comes from 3 English talking markets. Why? As a result of for our style to paintings we want to create important mass of people who discuss the similar language, as a result of we create teams in every of our locations and the extra folks that talk the similar language, the extra teams we will create, the extra departure dates we’ve got and the simpler the conversion.

We wish to reflect the similar with Spanish talking vacationers. Spain is already 8% of our gross sales and we introduced in Latin The us just lately. We opened Mexico, Chile and Colombia and we’re launching extra international locations in the following few months. The 3rd expansion lever is one thing we initiated two years in the past in Canada, which is, as a substitute of the usage of huge quantities of cash to obtain shoppers, we wish to use part of our advertising finances to construct the logo. We use other channels, like tv. Now we have noticed all our metrics give a boost to considerably in Canada. Now we have logo consciousness in Canada of over 60% so we wish to reflect that during different markets and clearly the massive one is the U.S. 

What would you are saying are your demanding situations as a CEO of a shuttle corporate 

Stay the buyers glad. I’m no longer the founder, I joined seven years in the past because the CEO. Now we have an overly fragmented cap desk since the founder bought his stocks to mission capital price range. Now we have 11 price range as buyers. Protecting them glad method rising speedy. In every other industry in case you develop at 20% fee everyone is tremendous glad. In an organization this is mission subsidized this can be a failure. The second one problem is the best way to stay the similar tradition that we had 5 years in the past once we had been 50 folks, now that we’re 500. How can we care for that tradition? I imply the entrepreneurial spirit that startups have, the agility, the arrogance in making bets and taking possibility. 

What do you suppose are the broader demanding situations for the section of the trade that you just perform in?

It’s tremendous antiquated and it’s sudden that there is not any virtual chief. It’s ultra-fragmented no longer simplest in Europe but additionally within the U.S. and Canada. There are numerous small to medium sized excursion operators which have been round for a few years and I feel there’s a transparent alternative for consolidation on this trade via mergers and acquisitions. We’re pondering of rising via acquisitions and in shuttle measurement issues. One fast option to acquire that measurement is by means of obtaining different companies and those are companies which can be circle of relatives owned, have by no means raised capital, are successful and feature very unswerving shoppers.

However usually I feel the excursion operation style is antiquated. It’s in line with an easy premise which is first I’ll take capability and taking capability method I’m going to pre-buy rooms in accommodations and constitution flights. And, when I’ve the capability I’m going to search for call for which I feel is totally incorrect.

If you want to alternate something about Exoticca, what would it not be? 

I would possibly alternate the site. We’re actually a North American corporate while you have a look at the gross sales. We want to be nearer to the marketplace however what we’ve executed in Barcelona would value us two or 3 times extra within the Silicon Valley. We’re transferring a part of the chief staff to the U.S. to be nearer to the purchasers.

When you weren’t main Exoticca, what would you be doing?

I’ve a pricey pastime which is to speculate small exams in startups. I actually experience it, it lets in me to fulfill marketers, I’ve made 30 to 40 investments however I would possibly attempt to do it professionally.