Skift Take
This week travel startups announced more than $64 million in funding. Investors backed innovations in extended-stay lodging, food waste management, voice-powered instructions for airline and hotel workers, help for distressed visitors in India, and event planning tools.
This week, travel startups announced more than $64 million in funding.
>>Blueground, a real estate company that provides extended-stay lodging for stays of a month or longer, has raised $50 million in a Series B round.
WestCap Investment Partners and Prime Ventures led the round. WestCap's founding partner, Laurence Tosi, had been the chief financial officer of Airbnb until recently and, before that, was the chief financial officer of Blackstone, a private equity firm.
By the end of this year, Blueground plans to begin offering people places to stay in London, Paris, and Seattle. The company has amassed more than 2,800 apartments in residential buildings in nine cities. It has raised a total of $78 million in equity funding.
Every Blueground apartment is fully furnished and loaded with amenities and services so that a guest only has to turn up and gain access to high-speed Wi-Fi and so forth. Business travelers can arrive and merely "plug in" to existing tech services, such as cable TV and internet, along with amenities, such as gym memberships.
Similar to what WeWork offers in its flagship product of co-working spaces, Blueground a
