Skift Take
Travel startups focusing on contactless tech at airports built in Australia, branded budget hotels in India, software and hardware to run cultural villages in China, auction-style hotel booking in Korea, and private tours in Japan have announced more than $28 million in funding collectively. Asia-Pacific is where it's at.
This week, travel startups announced more than $28 million in funding.
>>Elenium Automation, which makes self-service kiosks for airports, has raised an undisclosed round of Series B funding.
NRMA (the National Roads and Motorists' Association) in Australia led the round, which was about $21 million ($30 million Australian) according to a report in Insurance Business.
Elenium last year raised $10.5 million ($15 million Australian) in Series A funding.
The startup, based near Melbourne, launched in 2015. It has since deployed 700 self-service kiosks and bag-drop technology in 13 airports worldwide, supporting 250 million passengers, with eight more airports to become operational this year.
Elenium has a cornerstone client in Etihad Airways, which white-labels some of the startup's mobile services for the airport portion of a trip. Earlier this year, Etihad began using the startup's self-service kiosks that check the temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate of p