From achieving nearly one-third market penetration in the Netherlands to seeing 290% user growth in France, Polarsteps is proving that European startups can compete with Silicon Valley giants. Here's a selection of recent international media coverage highlighting the company's remarkable journey.

Polarsteps in recent news

UK

TechRound featured an in-depth interview with Clare Jones, CEO at travel app Polarsteps, where she discusses the company's mission to build "the essential tool for modern-day explorers." Jones explains how Polarsteps is evolving into an all-in-one travel platform that helps users get inspired, plan adventures, track travels, and relive trips. 

She highlights the company's impressive scale — with trips tracked in every country worldwide and over 3 billion miles logged in a single year (equivalent to 10 round trips to Mars). The interview reveals how impressively the team has scaled while maintaining profitability without external funding, and discusses their strategic use of AI combined with human travel expertise.
Read the full interview →

France

Les Echos reported on Polarsteps' explosive growth, particularly highlighting France as the company's fastest-growing market with 290% user growth in 2024. The article reveals that Paris is now the city with the most active users worldwide, and France represents over 21% of Polarsteps' users. 

The piece details the company's journey from 1 million users in 2019 to 14 million at the time of writing (now 15 million), with users collectively traveling 20 billion kilometers in 2024 alone — equivalent to 40 round trips to Mars.
Lire l'article complet →

The Netherlands

Financieele Dagblad explores Polarsteps' ambitious goal to rival travel giants like Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb. The comprehensive piece reveals that nearly one-third of all Dutch residents (5.5 million people) have a Polarsteps account, and the company expects to achieve similar penetration in France, Germany, the UK, and the US within four years. Co-founder Koen Droste discusses the company's organic growth strategy, noting that each new user invites an average of five friends to follow their travels. 

The article details the founding story of three friends from Twente who built the company with minimal funding (€5 million total over nearly a decade) and how they survived the pandemic without layoffs thanks to their sustainable business model.
Lees het volledige artikel →

Podcast features

Polarsteps leadership has also shared insights through several podcast appearances, including:

Clare Jones interview on "Van Start tot Ster: On Tour:" CEO Clare Jones discusses Polarsteps’ organic growth, their goal of reaching 100 million users, and how they've scaled profitably without external funding since 2019. The conversation covers their word-of-mouth growth engine, vision for AI in travel, and plans to revolutionize trip planning beyond tracking and reliving adventures.
Watch on YouTube →

PMF Show with founder Koen Droste: A compelling story of resilience and growth strategy, where Droste reveals how Polarsteps transformed from losing 90% of users overnight to achieving $10 million in revenue with minimal funding. The episode focuses on their counterintuitive approach of obsessing over Net Promoter Score (NPS) rather than revenue, which drove explosive organic growth. Droste explains why they ignored conventional startup advice about launching early and chasing partnerships, instead focusing on quality-first development and word-of-mouth marketing.
Listen to the episode →

About Polarsteps

Polarsteps, the Amsterdam-based scale-up founded in 2015, has become an essential trip companion for over 15 million explorers worldwide. As an end-to-end app, it empowers travelers to plan, track, and relive their journeys in a uniquely smart and visually beautiful way. With a dedicated team of more than 80 international talents, the company has bold ambitions to ignite the spirit of adventure in modern explorers, at every step of the journey. The big mission? To lead a global shift towards more authentic, meaningful, and responsible travel.