Heygo raises $20 million so you can tip local travel guides from your couch

The London-based streaming travel startup Heygo has raised $20 million at a $120 million valuation.

Heygo, which Forbes likens to a ‘Twitch for travel’, connects guides who stream city tours to viewers who can attend from the comfort of home. The company has booked 2 million tours since Nov. 2020, and will use the new funding to build out its streaming infrastructure and community features.

Tours are free, and guides monetize via viewer tips – with Heygo monetizing by taking a cut of these revenues. The company tells Forbes that it plans to experiment with ticketed tours. The platform only hosts live content, and tours cannot be replayed.

Heygo has hosted tours from 730 locations – including Paris, Machu Picchu, and Banff – in more than 100 countries and from 680 guides.

“This has never been about replacing travel,” co-founder and CEO John Tertan tells Forbes. “You don’t stop playing video games just because you’re on Twitch, it’s more that it enhances that experience and we want to become that platform that helps people who are passionate about travel and culture to do more of it.”