• NEWS
    • PODCASTS
    • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWS
    • ADVERTISE WITH US
  • EVENTS
    • EVENT PHOTOS
    • EVENT VIDEOS
    • THIRSTY THURSDAYS
    • CONFERENCES
    • NETWORKING
    • TRAINING & WORKSHOPS
  • JOBS
    • FOR JOB SEEKER
    • FOR EMPLOYER
  • COMMUNITY
    • SEARCH PEOPLE
      • Create a profile now
    • SEARCH COMPANIES
      • Create a profile now
  • EVERYTHING TD
    • About TD
    • What is Native Content?
    • Advertise with TD
    • Connect with Gary (CEO)
    • Connect with Chris (GM)
    • Connect with Tory (Director of Sales)
    • Connect with Anthony (Sales -AU/NZ/SP)
    • Connect with Paul (BDM-Global)
    • Connect with Crystal (BDM-Singapore)
  • SELF SERVICE
    • PACKAGES AVAILABLE
    • POST A TRAVEL BLOG
    • UPLOAD YOUR EVENT

Travel Daily Travel Daily - Informing, connecting and developing the world’s travel industry professionals.

  • MARKETS
    • Asia
      • Cambodia
      • Indonesia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Vietnam
      • Australia
    • Thailand
    • China
    • India
    • Middle East
    • UK & Europe
    • USA
  • SECTORS
    • Air
    • Appointments
    • Business Travel
    • Cruise
    • Hospitality
    • HR & Careers
    • Luxury Travel
    • MICE
    • Technology
    • Tourism
    • Travel Agents
  • FEATURES
    • Sponsored
    • Travel Guides
    • Interviews
    • Podcasts
    • Guest writers
    • Competitions
    • Incentives
    • Reviews
    • By the Way
    • PR Newswire
    • BusinessWire
    • Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
      • Hotel & Travel businesses for sale
  • TRAVEL GUIDES
    • Ponant Yacht Cruises and Expeditions
    • South Australia Tourism Guide
    • The Residence by Etihad Airways
    • Encore Tickets (Chinese Guide)
    • Affordable Luxury in Thailand by Centara Hotels
    • Rising Above the Oridinary by Conrad Bangkok
    • The Best of Thailand
  • FREE TRAINING COURSES
    • Traveluni Online Courses
Travel Daily
GlobalUKStartups

Holding strong: How these two European travel startups not only survived the COVID-19 crisis but raised funding

By Megha Paul On Aug 25, 2020
TD Editor
Share
Naren Shaam, founder and CEO of Omio

As the going gets tough, the tough gets going. Here goes the popular saying. And in the current scenario, it is the most palpable in the travel industry. Despite of being hit hard and being brought to a complete standstill by the ongoing pandemic, there are start-ups that are holding strong and raising fresh round of investments, too.

The total value of transactions of these travel startups might be lower compared to last year. However, a recent rise in the size of funding rounds had been related to businesses requiring either a lot of investment in AI and customer service. Investors are still demonstrating confidence in management team and business model in midst of unprecedented crisis in global travel. These are clear signs of market recovery as Europeans plan last-minute summer vacations and return to travelling locally.

This week we speak to two European start ups which are still going strong amid the downturn and have raised money in the last one week.

Omio strengthens position as global travel platform

Omio (formerly GoEuro), Europe’s leading multi-modal travel booking platform, announced it has secured USD 100 million in investments from existing and new investors including Temasek, Kinnevik, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, NEA and Kleiner Perkins last week. This funding has been one of Europe’s biggest travel round of 2020 till now.

The funding will allow the company to pursue its vision of unifying global transport with end to end consumer experiences. The investments will be directed at fuelling continued organic growth and opportunistic M&A activities while strengthening the company’s unique product and service offering: All transport options (including rail, bus, flights, ferries, rental cars and car sharing) diversified across 37 countries in Europe and Northern America under the Omio brand, combined with global reach through the planning engine Rome2Rio, which offers search and discovery of transport to and from more than 10 million locations worldwide.

Talking about the new development, Naren Shaam, founder and CEO of Omio, said: “We have seen a very promising recovery of our business over the past weeks, based on the unique strength of our product which includes all modes of transport across multiple markets. Especially in Germany and France, we are already above 50% of our pre-Covid-19 bookings despite marginal marketing spend. However, consumer expectations are changing and the industry will need to evolve to new standards and provide new products with a strong focus on sustainability. We will use the fresh capital to drive this change.”

Omio has already experienced a stronger bounce-back in travel bookings than expected. This has been driven by a clear change in consumer behaviour towards more ground transportation, combined with an accelerating shift towards app usage as consumers prefer to avoid kiosks and long queues. It actively supported this shift by continuing to improve and expand its services, for example through the launch of its Open Travel Index (OTI) to help travellers easily understand where they can travel to within Europe and Northern America.

The Trip Boutique to drive personalisation in travel

Fernanda Barrence Mutz, CEO and co-founder of The Trip Boutique

Swiss travel-tech company focused on AI-based personalisation of travel experiences, The Trip Boutique, closed its first financing round with high-profile investors.

“The commitment from the investors amidst challenging times for the travel industry shows that they strongly believe in our value proposition and growth potential. They are convinced that the service that we are building has an even higher relevance in the new context of tourism,” said Fernanda Barrence Mutz, CEO and co-founder of The Trip Boutique.

Founded in 2017 and with offices in Zurich (Switzerland) and Kiev (Ukraine), The Trip Boutique is a modern travel advisory platform, leveraging technology to create a better way of traveling. By innovatively combining AI with human expertise, it has built a suite of proprietary tools and a matching technology to identify the hotels, restaurants, bars, cafés, activities, attractions and experiences in a destination that best fit each client’s interests, lifestyle and tastes.

A custom-made and bookable travel itinerary is designed and delivered to each traveller, so they can enjoy the luxury of a personal travel advisory service at their fingertips, at an accessible price. The proceeds of the funding round will take the company well into 2021 and will be utilised to expand its portfolio of destinations, further develop its technology, and cultivate its growing customer base by establishing additional alliances with industry partners.

OmioTemasekKinnevikGoldman Sachs Asset ManagementNEAKleiner PerkinsNaren ShaamThe Trip Boutique
Share
You might also like
Tourism

Feel like a local! VisitOSLO and The Trip Boutique join hands for AI-based…

Technology

All roads lead to Bergamo: How Omio has adopted a village to help reboot Italy’s…

Global

Holding strong: How these two European travel startups not only survived the COVID-19…

Technology

Travel-planning app Omio unveils new index to fast-track return of travel

Prev Next

Comments are closed.

LATEST STORIES

  • Travelling to Delhi? Check out these new travel rules from today

    Airlines will not turn cash positive until 2022, says IATA

    How India will travel once vaccinated: Over 65% plan holiday in next two months

    Saudi Arabia announces USD 3 billion luxury mountain hub plan

  • ‘Tis the time to travel! Senior travellers bounce back with vaccine roll out

    How Dubai is implementing digital verification of traveller medical records related to COVID-19 vaccination

    Haikou receives over one million travellers during Chinese New Year holiday

    Tripadvisor launches live sentiment dashboard to support global tourism recovery

  • How insurance sector should change for post-Brexit business travel

    Emirates operates flight with fully vaccinated frontline teams across all customer touchpoints

    Qantas reveals shocking AUD 1 billion six-month loss

    How tech can augment safety, staff efficiency and guest satisfaction for safe experiences

Vaccination Updates

How India will travel once vaccinated: Over 65% plan holiday…

‘Tis the time to travel! Senior travellers bounce back with…

How Dubai is implementing digital verification of traveller…

Emirates operates flight with fully vaccinated frontline…

Prev Next 1 of 23

Re-opening updates

Travelling to Delhi? Check out these new travel rules from…

How India will travel once vaccinated: Over 65% plan holiday…

Saudi Arabia announces USD 3 billion luxury mountain hub…

Haikou receives over one million travellers during Chinese…

Prev Next 1 of 4
STAY UPDATED WITH THE LATEST TRAVEL NEWS, JOBS & EVENTS!
Join over 180,000 travel agents, professionals and executives subscribed to our daily newsletter.
You can unsubscribe at any time

Popular Posts

Travelling to Delhi? Check out these new travel rules from…

Meet the hottest airplane seat as aviation re-starts

ANA, DHL pair up for delivery of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine…

Accor to sell a 1.5% stake in Huazhu for EUR239 million

Prev Next 1 of 13
Search
Follow Us

Menu
  • News
  • Events
  • Jobs
  • Community
  • Subscribe
About
  • About Travel Daily (TD)
  • Advertise with Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
© 2021 - Travel Daily. All Rights Reserved.
X
Travel Daily
GET THE LATEST TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEWS, JOBS AND EVENTS STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX!
Join over 180,000 travel agents, professionals and executives subscribed to our daily newsletter.
You can unsubscribe at any time
Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up here to get the latest news, updates and special offers delivered directly to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe at any time
Close

Welcome, Login to your account.

Forget password?
No account? Sign Up
Sign in

Recover your password.

A password will be e-mailed to you.

LOG IN

Welcome back, Log in to your account.

Continue with Facebook
Continue with Google
Continue with Twitter
Continue with LinkedIn

OR
Log in using your email
Forgot password?
Not a member yet? SIGN UP FOR FREE
Sign in

Recover your password.

Sign in

SIGN UP FOR FREE

(New User)

Be part of our community of seasoned travel and hospitality industry professionals from all over the world.

Continue with Facebook
Continue with Google
Continue with Twitter
Continue with LinkedIn
I want to
Only letters and numbers are allowed
Please enter a valid email address
Must be between 6-8 characters
Must be the same with Password
Already have an account? LOG IN
  • LOGIN / SIGN UP
  • NEWS
    • MARKETS
      • Asia
        • Cambodia
        • Indonesia
        • Malaysia
        • Myanmar
        • Philippines
        • Laos
        • Singapore
        • Vietnam
        • Australia
      • Thailand
      • China
      • India
      • Middle East
      • UK & Europe
      • USA
    • SECTORS
      • Air
      • Appointments
      • Business Travel
      • Cruise
      • Hospitality
      • HR & Careers
      • Luxury Travel
      • MICE
      • Technology
      • Tourism
      • Travel Agents
    • FEATURES
      • Sponsored
      • Travel Guides
      • Interviews
      • Podcasts
      • Guest writers
      • Reviews
      • Competitions
      • By the Way
      • PR Newswire
      • BusinessWire
      • Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
        • Hotel & Travel businesses for sale
  • EVENTS
    • Webinars
    • Thirsty Thursdays
    • Photos
    • Videos
    • Conferences
    • Networking
    • Training & Workshops
  • JOBS
    • For Job Seeker
      • Create a profile now
    • For Employer
      • Create a profile now
  • COMMUNITY
    • Search community profiles
    • Search Companies
  • TRAVEL GUIDES
    • Ponant Yacht Cruises and Expeditions
    • South Australia Tourism Guide
    • The Residence by Etihad Airways
    • Encore Tickets (Chinese Guide)
    • Affordable Luxury in Thailand by Centara Hotels
    • Rising Above the Oridinary by Conrad Bangkok
    • The Best of Thailand
  • FREE TRAINING COURSES
    • Traveluni Online Courses