It's been a tough few years for Omio, the Berlin-based travel search and booking platform that saw 98% of its revenues evaporate overnight when COVID-19 hit Europe back in Spring 2020. But the company kept on trucking and has found some light at the end of the tunnel: Today it's reporting revenues which have rebounded to more than double pre-pandemic levels. It's also announcing close of an $80M Series E.

The E round includes backing from some new investors including Lazard Asset Management and Stack Capital Group. Existing investors reupping their support for the almost decade-old business include NEA, Temasek, and funds managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, amongst others.

It's Omio's first funding since a $100M convertible note it took in just under two years ago to see it through the first waves of the coronavirus crisis. In all, it's raised around $480M since being founded back in 2013.

The new funding will be put towards reviving global expansion activities that have necessarily had to take a bit of a backseat during the pandemic -- including through M&A; and by doing more with its transportation data and inventory by scaling its partnerships (existing collaborations include tie-ups with Kayak, Huawei and LNER (London North Eastern Railway), among others. Investment for hiring and product dev is also planned.

"When COVID-19 hit we paused this global expansion strategy so that's now back on track," founder and CEO, Naren Shaam tells TechCrunch. "But with a slightly different twist -- and the twist is basically we're very much focused on our learnings and our scars we gained during COVID-19. So we're going about it in a much more disciplined fashion."

That means the preference will typically be 'build vs buy', he says -- but with the possibility of strategic acquisitions for selective technology and/or inventory to support further global scaling.

As it stands, Europe remains Omio's biggest market -- but Shaam says demand in the US, where Omio had launched just prior to the pandemic, has "bounced back" so he sounds bullish again on growth prospects over the pond.