Articles tagged “venture capital”

Despite the recent attempts at corporate venture capital by JetBlue, Booking.com, and other big players, many travel companies prefer to invest in startups via traditional venture funds instead.

Diving into the data of European VC reveals that while new tech-hubs are emerging, the landscape is still vastly dominated by the traditional trio of well-established tech-hubs. Namely London, Paris, and Berlin.

Venture capital's returns are usually achieved in the long-term, a great match for pension funds. However, European pension funds are still reluctant to allocate money to VC, considering it a risky venture.

Europe is finally warming up to the American-style, risk big and risk early venture investment culture that has given birth to so many tech megabrands out of Silicon Valley.

As a private company Airbnb isn't required to publicly disclose much when it comes to its finances. What is clear from analysing the accounts of Airbnb Payments UK Ltd., however, is just how much money is swilling about the company.

Travel startups take a dramatically different idea, creativity, exuberance, focus, money, connections, a dedication to team building, and a helluva lot of hubris. Depending on the moment, Kayak and Lola co-founder Paul English has all of the above in ever-changing quantities.

The funding balance of power is changing as 67 percent of venture capital deals for travel tech startups took place outside the U.S. in the first half of 2016, although that was 3 percentage points lower than the year-earlier period. Funding for mobile-travel startups jumped 500 percent.

A handful of major disruptive companies in travel and hospitality are enjoying sky-high valuations as they secure late-round funding, while an ever-increasing number of newer startups are vying for investment capital as they target more specific markets.

Travel startups pivoting from a consumer business toward a B2B focus is trendy, with founders and CEOs believing that there will be fewer marketing woes and reduced competition. But get in line when it comes to joining the droves of startups trying to sell to big corporations, hotels and travel agencies. The sales hurdle can be almost as intractable as the marketing roadblock.

As the market for home rentals expands so does the demand for services that provide the freedom of a vacation, or urban rental with the amenities and luxuries of a hotel.