WeRoad raises $58 million from Airbnb for U.S. expansion

Airbnb is backing a different kind of travel bet: that younger Americans want trips packaged as social experiences, not just bookings. The Milan-based WeRoad raised $58 million in a Series C round led by Airbnb, lifting total capital raised to roughly $100 million as it began its first major expansion outside Europe with a U.S. launch centered on Austin.

The company is trying to prove that curated group travel can scale in a market dominated by self-service booking and traditional agencies. WeRoad, founded in 2017, says more than 300,000 travelers have used its platform. Its site says travelers rate the service 4.7 out of 5, about 60% book again, and roughly one-third of first-time customers arrive through word of mouth. Those are the kinds of retention signals investors usually want to see before a brand tries to cross an ocean.

WeRoad’s pitch is broader than a trip planner. The company has also built WeMeet, an offline events product launched in 2025 to help travelers and locals connect through dinners, excursions, yoga sessions and sports meetups. WeRoad says WeMeet has drawn 50,000 people across 35 cities, including London, Manchester, Dublin, Liverpool and Leeds. That local layer suggests the company is selling not just logistics, but a response to loneliness and the friction of meeting people in unfamiliar places.

The U.S. rollout started with exclusive offers for U.S. customers after WeRoad said it was officially live in the American market on April 24. The company said it had already run dozens of U.S. itineraries and that the country had long been part of its travel program, with trips built around Route 66, the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Monument Valley. That matters because it shows the brand is not entering the U.S. as a stranger to American travel demand, but as a company testing whether its European community model can translate to a much larger market.

The new money follows an €18 million Series B announced in late 2023. A recent report said WeRoad closed 2025 with €130 million in revenue, giving the company scale as it tries to turn group travel into a repeatable consumer habit in the United States. If Austin works, WeRoad will have shown that travel can be sold less as an itinerary and more as a social product, with convenience and discovery bundled into one purchase.