Dreamlines, a OTA based in Germany specialising in cruise, has secured a $55 million Series E funding round, led by Princeville Global.

Princeville Global is making its first investment into Dreamlines. The firm has offices in San Francisco and Hong Kong and its portfolio includes tripping.com, the US-based vacation rentals and short-term lettings metasearch site. Princeville Global led a $35 million investment into tripping.com at the back-end of 2016.

Emmanuel DeSousa, managing partner of Princeville Global, will join the Dreamlines board. He said:

“The cruise industry is the last sizable, global travel segment to be disrupted by a tech-focused online booking platform…Dreamlines is uniquely positioned to continue transforming the cruise industry to an online model, leading in Europe and expanding around the world.”

Dreamlines was formed in 2012 and claims to be the European market leader for selling cruises online.  It now has 10 points of sale and has relationships with more than 100 cruise operators around the globe.

The cash has been earmarked for continued growth and international expansion. Felix Schneider, CEO and founder, said that its “European market leadership is an ideal base for further expansion…”

While the round was led by Princeville Global, existing investors including Holtzbrinck Ventures, Target Global, Dimaventures, Hasso Plattner Ventures, TruVenturo and Global Founders.

Holtzbrink was one of the first to fund the business. Christian Saller is a general partner at Holtzbrinck and is also the Dreamlines chairman. He noted that Dreamlines has grown “by a factor [of] ten” since the initial investment.

Its most recent investment before today’s $55 million was a Series D round in 2016 which raised €32 million in two tranches.

Related reading from tnooz:

Traveltek launches US expansion with focus on cruise technology (March 2018)

Cruise.co.uk docks with new private equity owner in £52 million deal (Aug 2016)