Articles tagged “startups”

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.

Nowhere is the need for a more tech-driven, business-oriented model for setting rates more clear than with short-term rental property management companies. Several startups aim to supercharge rate-setting with data-powered insights. But there's probably too many of these young companies for them to all survive long-term.

Melbourne, Australia-based luggage maker July was one of several travel startups that announced collectively more than $21 million in funding this week.

We get it, startups often have to accept substantial losses in order to quickly expand a particular business. But given the size of Culture Trip's revenue and the market in which it operates, it's difficult to see why investors have pumped more than $100 million into the business.

By investing in bus booking company Buser, SoftBank continues to add travel-related startups to its portfolio of investments, despite reports of trouble due to its investments in WeWork and Uber that have not met its expectations. Plus, we have this week's news of funding for the startups Jiudianbang, Lyte, Situm, and Skyroam.

Hotel tech innovation has been partly hampered by high tolls that property management systems charge for accessing critical data. Impala, Hapi, and other companies hope to bring that connectivity cost down, which could be a windfall for vendors.

This week, the startups Aero, TravelBank, Impala, Quicko, and Fyle together announced more than $45 million in funding.

In the past week, travel startups raised more than $100 million in funding. The companies Unbabel, Beyond Pricing, Travel Easy, Seatfrog, Cruisewatch, HappyOrNot, Landline, Planet O, and Go Zayaan look to go to the next level.

This week, travel startups announced more than $433 million in funding. Companies included Chengjia, Holidu, AvantStay, WanderJaunt, Lavanda, Kambr, Amenitiz, and Beekeeper.

India is becoming the boat that lifts Asia-Pacific destinations that have become too dependent on China outbound travel, which is sputtering. Australia is a good example of this.