Hopper cuts enterprise staff following co-founder Dakota Smith exit

Travel technology company Hopper Inc. eliminated positions across its enterprise division, Hopper Technology Solutions, following the departure of co-founder Dakota Smith in late September 2026, according to employee network posts and a report by BetaKit.

Smith announced on LinkedIn on September 28, 2026, that he was leaving the company. He served as chief executive officer of Hopper Technology Solutions for three years. The B2B division provides data, e-commerce, and financial technology services to corporate clients, accounting for the majority of Hopper's total revenue.

In a message to BetaKit, Smith stated that his final day occurred in mid-September. He added that he had no additional details regarding his departure and possessed no insight into subsequent restructuring within the business.

Shortly after Smith's announcement, more than half a dozen employees posted on LinkedIn indicating that Hopper had eliminated their roles. Kamil Eladas, a former technical recruitment manager who worked at Hopper for nearly seven years, wrote on October 2 about his exit following the company's growth.

“Scaling an org from [less than] 200 employees to 1,200+ distributed across 37+ countries while keeping the bar as high as ours has been pure madness to say the least,” Eladas wrote in his post. He noted that leaving the business was “bittersweet,” though he did not explicitly state whether his departure was part of the staff reductions.

The job cuts follow changes to Hopper's enterprise partnerships earlier in 2026. U.S. financial services giant Capital One brought its Hopper-developed travel booking platform, along with the team supporting it, in-house. Hopper has conducted multiple rounds of workforce reductions over recent years alongside changes to its client relationships.

Despite losing the Capital One team, Hopper signed a partnership agreement in 2026 with Royal Bank of Canada to power its travel rewards program. Additionally, travel industry publication Skift reported that Hopper faces market pressure in Asia, where competitor Booking Holdings plans to consolidate its Agoda, Priceline, and Booking.com brands.

BetaKit reached out to Hopper for details regarding the headcount reductions, but the company did not respond.