Freedome, an Italian platform for outdoor experiences that has completed its incubation process at I3P, continues to grow along a trajectory that began in 2020. In just a few years, the company has built a model that connects local operators and demand for outdoor experiences, and now looks ahead to 2025 with the goal of achieving a turnover of around €17 million. In fact, turnover in 2025 is expected to be ten times higher than in 2021 (CAGR 2021-2025 equal to 80%), the first post-pandemic year, in which the innovative start-up closed a first round of €600,000.
To accompany its current phase of development, the young company has announced a new capital increase of €2 million: a milestone that concludes the Series A round that began in mid-2023, with €4.5 million raised, bringing the total capital raised since the company's inception to over €5 million. The transaction was underwritten by Opes Italia SICAF EuVECA as lead investor together with SocialFare Seed, Bios Line Holding, and a consortium of strategic investors - all already present in the company's shareholding structure - and confirms confidence both in the path taken and in the company's transformation from a marketplace to an experiential brand.
The growth of the start-up
This evolution has led Freedome to grow steadily over the years, with solid financial metrics and managerial efficiency, supporting development largely through self-financing. The trajectory followed has allowed the company to consolidate its position in the market, becoming a benchmark capable of inspiring authentic and ‘out of the ordinary’ leisure time.
The new capital will be used to upgrade the technology platform and expand the team - currently composed of 50 people - with new hires focused on technology, marketing, product, and operations. The funds will also support international expansion, which began in 2025 with the entry into the Spanish market, where the company aims to replicate the success achieved in Italy.
Since its foundation, Freedome has surpassed the milestone of half a million experiences sold. This result has been achieved thanks to a catalog of more than 5,000 activities and a constantly expanding network of over 2,000 local operators, more than half of whom are located in rural areas. The company thus contributes to promoting local development, making outdoor tourism a driver of economic and cultural enhancement.
The market context confirms the business opportunity: 2025 is the year of experiences, according to several studies, with Europeans ready to invest more and more in memorable trips and activities. According to a recent research by Mastercard, tourism and travel remain at the top of Europeans' priorities (89%); but the real news is outdoor experiences (80%), which for the first time surpass food tourism (79%). This trend is also reflected in Italy, where the market for outdoor tours and activities has reached a value of €1.1 billion, and appears even more promising when looking at Spain, where outdoor experiences rank first in consumer preferences, with 42% of consumers indicating them as a priority activity, the highest percentage in Europe.
The goals for the future
It is against this backdrop that Freedome's growth path unfolds, reflecting an evolution in its identity. From an outdoor activity marketplace, the platform has become an ironic and engaging brand with an increasingly clear and distinctive mission: to offer a different - more authentic, fun, and unconventional - way of enjoying leisure time. This evolution marks the transition from an aggregator of experiences to an experiential brand with its own identity in the outdoor activities segment.
“This capital increase represents an important milestone in Freedome's growth,” said Michele Mezzanzanica, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Freedome. “Our goal has always been to create a model that combines growth and efficiency. We wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to build a successful business based on solid fundamentals and financial health, even in the early stages of development. The results achieved, as well as the confidence of investors, confirm the validity of the work done and the strategy pursued.”
“We are in a phase of consolidation and, at the same time, of openness to new challenges,” said Manuel Siclari, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Freedome. "On the one hand, we are strengthening our presence and leadership in the Italian market, and on the other, we are decisively embarking on a path of international expansion, starting with Spain. The goal is to create a leading European player capable of keeping pace with the evolution of the sector and meeting the growing demand for authentic, high-quality experiences. With this in mind, our ties with local areas and operators will remain the cornerstones on which we will build the future strategies that will guide Freedome's development."
"We renew our confidence in the Freedome team, which over the past two years has strengthened its market position by managing growth with great vision and rigorous execution. Its data-driven approach and focus on impact are further confirmation of the maturity it has achieved. We are convinced that, on this basis, the growth trajectory will be very significant, and we are delighted to be able to contribute to this next phase," said Elena Casolari, CEO of Opes Italia SICAF EuVECA.
