Articles tagged “vcroundup”

Laughing all the way to the bank is even more fun when you're in the back seat of a chauffeured car. The founders of the Berlin-based professional driver service Blacklane have received significant funding from an investor in the Gulf States, a growing regional source of investment for travel companies.

It would be bad if Chrome River spent all of its newfound money on travel and entertainment. But at least it would be able to expense it efficiently if it did.

This week, startups raised funding to help simplify cross-border transactions, lend consumers money to book travel, offer airport valet services, map interior spaces, automate back-office processes for rental property managers, and split the booking of multiple-night hotel stays. They'll have a happy New Year for sure.

Who needs Santa? This week investors announced more than $179.5 million in funding for startups that specialize in hotel revenue management, baggage transport, and online travel services.

Two startups aiming to help vacation rental property managers, one that helps hoteliers market their neighborhood's attractions to guests, and one that helps give business travelers cash back on purchases together raised $18 million this week.

After years of following startup funding trends, it's tempting to move to a developing country to start an online travel agency or metasearch company. On the other hand, we can list dozens of reasons not to.

In the California gold rush, businesses once sold pickaxes to prospectors. In today's vacation rental gold rush, they're selling management services to the property owners. The safest bets are always adjacent services.

The moneyed set looked East this week as China had its second travel unicorn, Xiaozhu, receive a billion-dollar valuation, following in the footsteps of its rival, Tujia, China's first travel unicorn. Meanwhile, Ctrip bought Trip.com

While venture capital funding of startups has dropped steadily since 2012, there are still ideas investors find worth funding, such as for short-term rental management, event venue marketplaces, and hotel distribution.

Mapbox’s funding shows that Google will once again face competition for location-based data, which is good for market dynamics.