What Lokafy does

Lokafy is a Toronto-based private travel marketplace founded in 2013 by Kiran Samra. It connects individual travelers with freelance local guides ('Lokafyers') for fully customized, private walking tours in 300+ advertised cities (1,493+ cities with completed tours) across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa, and the Middle East. Travelers submit a booking request through lokafy.com specifying city, group composition, and interests; Lokafy's small matching team pairs the customer with a vetted local guide for 2-6 hour private tours. The company also operates a dedicated Private Cruise Excursions portal and a Travel Advisors channel as B2B adjacencies.

The core product surface consists of five elements: Private Walking Tours (the core product), Private Cruise Excursions (a cruise-passenger vertical), a Travel Stories & Guides Blog (content marketing), the Lokafyer Network (supply side, 19,362+ guides), and a Become a Lokafyer onboarding program. Disclosed technology is minimal: the platform uses OpenStreetMap for sample itinerary rendering and Google Cloud Storage for image and content delivery. There are no proprietary algorithms, disclosed API, mobile app, or AI/ML features described in available materials; matching is described as a manual, human-mediated process.

The business model is transaction-based: Lokafy earns a take rate on each booked tour. Pricing is quote-based rather than publicly listed, with a minimum 2-hour duration and pricing varying by city, duration, and group size. Distribution is primarily direct-to-consumer through the website, supplemented by the cruise and travel-advisor channels. Reported scale signals include 145,094+ lifetime travelers, 19,362+ Lokafyers, and a 5.0/5 average across 709 reviews. The company is privately held by its founder with no disclosed institutional funding rounds of consequence (one 2016 event with Extreme Venture Partners is recorded) and operates with 1-10 employees.

Name

Lokafy

Legal name

Lokafy

Website

https://lokafy.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Lokafy is a Toronto-based online marketplace that connects individual travelers with vetted freelance local guides for 2-6 hour private, customized walking tours across 300+ cities worldwide, serving solo travelers, families, cruise passengers, and special-interest travelers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Travel Tour Services

NAICS

Tour Operators (561520), Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation (487)

akta.pro primary industry

Private Guided Tours & Personal Tour Guides (THAJALAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Walking City Tours (Highlights & Orientation) (THAJAAAA)

Keywords

• Private walking tours
• Local tour guides
• Travel experiences booking
• Custom city tours
• Tour marketplace platform

Headquarters

HQ city

Toronto

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Tour Booking Fees: Transaction-based revenue model where customers pay for private walking tours. Tours are priced based on duration (minimum 2 hours) and group size. Each booking is customized per customer with no fixed pricing publicly listed.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Lokafy operates an online platform that connects travelers with a network of vetted local guides (Lokafyers) for private, fully customizable walking tours across 300+ cities in 1,493+ destinations worldwide. Customers submit a booking request with their destination, dates, group size, and interests; Lokafy matches them with a suitable local host who then leads a 2 to 6 hour personalized walking tour. A dedicated private cruise excursions offering serves cruise passengers with limited time in port.

Product overview

Lokafy is a platform connecting travelers with local guides (Lokafyers) for private, fully customizable walking tours. The core offering is the Private Walking Tours product, supported by a network of over 19,000 Lokafyers across 1,400+ cities. Additional offerings include Private Cruise Excursions for cruise passengers and a Travel Stories & Guides blog featuring local content. The company also operates a Lokafyer registration program to onboard new local guides. The platform emphasizes human connections over technology, matching travelers with locals based on interests rather than algorithm-driven recommendations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Private Walking Tours Fully customizable, private 2-6 hour walking tours in 300+ cities worldwide, hosted by vetted local guides (Lokafyers) and personalized around each traveler's interests, dates, and group size.
• Private Cruise Excursions Private, customized city walking tours designed for cruise passengers with limited time in port, offering flexible scheduling and tailored experiences, also bookable by cruise lines and travel advisors for their clients.

Quantifiable outcome

• 5.0/5 average rating across 709 reviews
• +1 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Withlocals: Marketplace for private, personalized tours hosted by locals in multiple cities, with cruise-excursion offerings. Directly comparable to Lokafy on private-custom tours, local hosts, and cruise passenger use case.
• ToursByLocals: Private, customized tours with vetted local guides across 200+ cities. Closest direct comparable to Lokafy in private-guide marketplace model, though ToursByLocals leans more on instant-book and structured pricing.
• Peek.com: Online booking platform for tours, activities, and local experiences, including partner integrations with OTAs. Comparable in product category, instant-book UX, and merchant-of-record tour offering.
• Showaround: Marketplace connecting travelers with locals for personalized city experiences. Closely aligned to Lokafy's local-connection positioning and use of independent guides as the supply side.

Broad incumbents

• Viator: Tripadvisor-owned tours and activities marketplace with a global inventory. Competes in the same private and small-group tour category as Lokafy but with much larger scale, brand, and resourcing.
• GetYourGuide: Large global tours and activities marketplace. Overlaps with Lokafy on private and local tours but operates as a broad, high-marketing-spend incumbent with instant-book and transparent pricing.
• Klook: Asia-headquartered tours, activities, and travel-services platform with strong APAC distribution. Competes with Lokafy in private and local tours across the same global city footprint.
• Airbnb Experiences: Online-experiences and in-person local experience offering inside Airbnb's marketplace. Direct category overlap with Lokafy's 'tour with a local' value proposition, with substantially larger distribution and consumer brand.

Emerging players

• Vayable: Earlier-stage marketplace for unique, locally-led experiences and tours. Comparable business model to Lokafy in connecting travelers with independent local hosts, though with a more limited active footprint.
• Like a Local Guide: Curated local-guide platform emphasizing authentic, off-the-beaten-path experiences. Similar in niche to Lokafy's authentic-local positioning, but with a smaller guide network and content-led distribution.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/LokafyTravel

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lokafy