Read the Notion memo Dharma, a travel startup that crafts travel experiences for creators and brands, used to raise $4.7 million
- Travel startup Dharma recently raised a $4.7 million pre-Series A funding round.
- The company helps creators and brands put together curated travel experiences.
- Here’s the Notion memo the cofounders used when pitching potential investors.
Dharma, a travel startup that organizes and sells trips hosted by creators and brands, recently announced a $4.7 million pre-Series A round of funding.
The round was led by San Francisco-based venture capital firm Convivialite Ventures, with participation from FJ Labs and billionaire Stephen Ross, owner of Equinox and SoulCycle.
Other notable angel investors included Shark Tank’s Matt Higgins and football legend Eric Cantona.
According to Dharma cofounder and CEO Charaf El Mansouri, the company’s goal is to assist creators and brands in organizing exclusive travel experiences by handling operations and liaising with local travel operators as needed.
The company began with the intention of facilitating wellness retreats, but has since expanded into running, wine, and even dodgeball-focused experiences.
“If I’m a yoga teacher and I have 5,000, 500,000, 5 million people in my community, I have a huge audience that I can monetize via travel experiences, and that are willing to pay a premium to travel with me for my retreats,” he went on to say. “I’m a yoga teacher, not a professional travel manager, by definition.” We came in as this travel brand, offering a service in which we do all of the heavy lifting.”
Dharma recently collaborated with Paramount Global to launch “Paris by Emily,” the first official travel experience for Netflix’s “Emily in Paris,” and has assisted creators such as fitness influencer Kelsey Wells and brands such as Pernod Ricard in hosting trips.
The company’s next big challenge, which will be funded by the raise, is to achieve scale. El Mansouri stated that his team intends to increase revenue by introducing more automation into the trip planning and booking process, as well as attracting larger and better partnerships.
The cofounders used a 17-page Notion memo to raise $4.7 million.
The memo has been redacted to remove some confidential information, such as booked revenue, product strategy details, and the company’s growth targets.