Vienna Outdoor Platform checkyeti Acquires France’s Manawa
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Vienna-based outdoor booking portal checkyeti is acquiring French competitor Manawa, or rather its operating company, Paris-based Alentour SAS. The two companies announced the deal. According to their own statements, the merger creates Europe’s largest specialized marketplace for outdoor and nature experiences. The companies did not disclose the purchase price.
Together, the two platforms offer more than 27,000 bookable activities, brokered through a network of over 8,000 providers across Europe. checkyeti alone currently lists around 16,000 experiences from roughly 5,000 providers, while Manawa contributes around 11,000 activities from about 3,500 providers.
Two Complementary Marketplaces
Founded in Vienna in 2014, checkyeti specializes in winter and summer activities such as skiing, hiking and other outdoor offerings, and is particularly well established in the Alpine region. Manawa, operated by Paris-based Alentour SAS, has built a similar business model with a particularly strong foothold in France and other European markets. Both sides emphasize that the transaction is less about sheer scale than about complementary regions, product portfolios and provider relationships.
Following the deal, Alentour SAS becomes part of the checkyeti Group as a standalone company. Manawa is to continue operating under its own brand and leadership — Timothée de Roux remains CEO. For providers currently listed on either platform, little will change for now, according to the companies; both portals will initially continue to operate separately.
Financing and the European Sovereignty Angle
The acquisition is backed by Banque des Territoires, part of the French state holding company Caisse des Dépôts. The institutional investor has held a stake in Manawa since an early stage and remains a shareholder in the combined company.
checkyeti CEO Jakob Keller sees the consolidation of a fragmented and still heavily under-digitized market as a logical step — not least because artificial intelligence is changing how travelers discover and book experiences. Speaking to industry outlet Arival, Keller stressed that a key competitive advantage for checkyeti and Manawa lies in their exclusive supply: many providers are listed only on these platforms and not with large players such as Viator or GetYourGuide. The higher booking complexity of ski tours, for instance — from details like height and weight to equipment rental — is one reason why specialization will hold up as a differentiator, he said.
Manawa CEO de Roux also foregrounded digital sovereignty in a statement: the merger brings together two leading European technology platforms in a growing market that is otherwise increasingly shaped by global players. Georg Reich, co-founder and COO of checkyeti, pointed to the potential to invest more heavily in digital distribution, AI-powered customer acquisition and automation going forward.
