Travel Seen takes majority stake in Oxford Ski Company, pushing group past £55M in travel value
What's the deal? Travel Seen, a social-first travel group backed by family office Arete Capital Partners, has acquired a majority stake in luxury ski specialist Oxford Ski Company. The deal — described as Travel Seen's "biggest and most transformational investment to date" — takes the group's collective total travel value past £55M.
Oxford Ski Company curates high-end ski experiences at chalets and hotels worldwide for ultra-high-net-worth clients. Chief executive Mark Gibbins and founder Rupert Longsdon will stay on and retain meaningful equity stakes.
Travel Seen is led by industry veteran Jen Atkinson, who previously scaled ITC Travel to a £90M total travel value group before exiting.
Why now? The acquisition follows a string of deals in late 2023 and a swoop for eShores in late 2024, signalling an accelerating M&A strategy. Arete Capital has backed Atkinson's vision since Q3 2021 to build a challenger brand in the travel sector.
"The opportunity for building travel brands in the social space is huge," said Atkinson. "Other sectors such as fashion and beauty have been hugely disrupted by social media and we hope to lead the way, similarly, in the travel sector."
What could go wrong? Ski tourism is inherently seasonal and climate-sensitive, making it a narrow niche to build a growth platform around. Integrating multiple acquisitions while maintaining brand quality for ultra-high-net-worth clients adds complexity — especially as the group scales through further M&A.
The signal: Travel Seen's accelerating buy-and-build strategy — four acquisitions since late 2023 — reflects a wider pattern of digitally native operators rolling up specialist travel brands to reach scale quickly. The bet that social-media-driven distribution can reshape luxury travel the way it reshaped fashion hinges on whether a curated community can command pricing power with ultra-high-net-worth clients who have traditionally relied on personal relationships over algorithms.
Read more: businesscloud.co.uk
