Cultural adventure travel company sold to leading brand specialist and Japanese investment firm

Transaction

Sale of ITG to Piper Private Equity and Cool Japan Fund

Sell-side

Undisclosed

Role

Adviser to ITG on its sale to Piper Private Equity and Cool Japan Fund

Sector

Consumer

Region

United Kingdom

We have advised the shareholders of Inside Travel Group (ITG), the world’s leading Asia-focused ‘cultural adventure’ travel brand, on its sale to Piper Private Equity and Cool Japan Fund. The sale marks an exit for Blandford Capital.

The business was founded in 2000 as InsideJapan Tours by Simon King and Alastair Donnelly as a specialist inbound Japan travel brand. ITG has since launched the InsideAsia brand and become known as an expert in Asia more broadly, arranging trips for clients to South Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia and Borneo, among others.

A cultural adventure combines unmissable sights, both well-known and off-radar, with hands on cultural experiences and a slice of everyday life. It connects travellers with people in each destination – guides, artisans, restauranteurs, retailers, locals and ex-pats – to bring the country to life. It encourages self-guided exploration and discovery with a ‘travel bible’, bespoke for every customer. And with ITG a cultural adventure can be experienced both as a group tour, led by expert Insiders, or a fully tailormade trip.

In 2024, ITG’s sales will exceed £65m, growing 33% from the previous year with tailormade trips delivering the majority of revenue. Travelling clients benefit from their 30-strong operations team in Japan and their ‘always on’ global customer support team offering 24/7/365 service.

ITG has an industry-leading client satisfaction Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 85 and trade partner satisfaction NPS of 90. The business has a strong culture, with 88% of employees saying that they are proud to work for ITG. ITG is also a B Corp, committed to the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit, and becomes Piper’s ninth B Corp investment.

Headquartered in Bristol, ITG also has offices in the US and Australia and a total team of 250 people. In 2024, 48% of revenue is from the UK, 32% from the US and 20% from Australia.

Piper and Cool Japan Fund’s investment will back the current founders Simon King and Alastair Donnelly alongside their senior leadership team. In addition, ITG will continue to be chaired by Ian Simkins.

This is the eighth travel deal that Clearwater’s travel sector team has completed in the last 18 months.

Throughout the process, the Clearwater team were positive, diligent and determined to get a great result for all parties involved in our transaction. They handled the multiple stakeholders with skill and care and kept everyone pushing forward to achieve the desired outcome. The team were available to advise when required, were willing to listen to our ideas and gave us the support to really showcase our business. As a founder, bringing in new investors is inevitably stressful, and I very much appreciated having a listening ear at the end of the phone to offload my anxieties to! As a management team, we couldn’t be happier with the investors Clearwater helped secure for the business and look forward to getting back to focusing on our real jobs – delivering trips of a lifetime to Japan and across Asia. A big thank you and well done from everyone at Inside Travel Group.
Alastair Donnelly, Director, Insider Travel Group

Thank you to the Clearwater team, who clearly demonstrated their market expertise and professionalism, proving themselves diligent, responsive, and supportive throughout the process. Clearwater understood that for us, after a fantastic few years of working with the ITG team, finding the right partner was key to a successful outcome. The Clearwater team went the extra mile to achieve this and to support the ITG team’s ambitions, and we look forward to cheering the business on from the sidelines during its next phase of growth.
Daniel Lehmann, Investment Director, Blandford Capital

It has been a real pleasure to support Blandford Capital and the Inside Travel management team on this transaction. Over the last 20+ years, Alastair and Simon have built one of the most exciting and differentiated tour operators in the world, evidenced by their outstanding customer satisfaction and reputation. With Blandford’s support Inside Travel survived the pandemic and has absolutely thrived since - we are thrilled to have advised the business to find new partners for the next stage of their growth journey.
Christopher Jones, Managing Partner, Clearwater