Sherpa Raises $8.5 Million for Simpler Visas: Travel Startup Funding This Week
Photo Credit: Malaysia Airlines takes delivery of its first Airbus A350-XWB aircraft, shown here taxiing. Malaysian Airlines is a business customer of startup Fly Now Pay Later, and customers looking to travel internationally can use startup Sherpa's tools to book visas to Malaysia. Airbus
Skift Take
This week, travel startups announced more than $24 million in funding. These companies help automate travel visa applications, offer installment loans for vacations, streamline corporate travel expenses, run glamping stays in Catalonia, help visitors book trip experiences in Qatar, and more.
Travel Startup Funding This Week
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.
This week, travel startups announced more than $24 million in funding.
>>Sherpa, a travel tech startup, raised $8.5 million in venture equity funding.
Narrative Fund and True Ventures led the round. Relay Ventures, TSVC, Globalive Capital, N49P, Plug and Play Ventures, Golden Ventures, Stuart MacDonald (founder of Expedia.ca), and LP Maurice (founder and CEO of Busbud) also invested.
Founded by CEO Max Tremaine and Ivan Sharko, the Toronto-based company has a current focus on helping travelers cope with the complexities of crossing borders during a pandemic. The company has raised $9 million in total since its start in 2015.
"In 2019, administering travel documents like visas cost airlines more than $1 billion, and new travel rules are making this issue more acute," said Tremaine. "By presenting the right information and ensuring that travelers have what they need to cross borders, we are making a meaningful difference for trust in travel."
Sherpa recently signed
