Former Momondo CEO Hugo Burge Serves as a Startup Guardian Angel
Photo Credit: Hugo Burge (left), former CEO of Momondo Group, and Alan Martin, managing director of Marchmont Ventures, at a Regus office rental space in Copenhagen. Marchmont Ventures
Skift Take
Having sold his business to Booking Holdings last year, former Momondo CEO Hugo Burge has had more time for venture investing. His views on travel startup funding are insightful. And we're not saying that just because we hope to be invited to see the gorgeous mansion in Scotland that he's been refurbishing.
Many founders and investors know that selling a company to Booking Holdings, the largest of the digital travel conglomerates, can be a great outcome — the next best outcome to listing as a public company. Hugo Burge helped foster that outcome for Momondo Group, and is now using some of the lessons he's learned and profits he's made to help a new generation of companies.
In March 2000, Burge invested in UK-headquartered online travel deals company Cheapflights, when it was a three-person operation. He helped to grow the business to the point that it acquired travel-price comparison site Momondo in 2011. Burge used bank debt, serviced out of cash flow, to create an organization with more than 350 employees.
In 2014, the renamed Momondo Group attracted about $105 million (£80 million), in investment from private equity firm Great Hill Partners.
The funds gave an exit to earlier Cheapflights equity investors, who had put in an undisclosed amount when buying the company from jou
