Top Stories
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Travel information brand Skift raises an additional $1.1 million in seed funding
DigitalNine months ago when Skift launched, we promised a smarter worldview on travel, with a mix of news, information, and data services for professionals in the travel industry and professional travelers. Since then we have grown very fast, and Skift is now among the top sites in the travel industry. To accelerate our growth, we [...]
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QuickMobile closes $3.2 million funding round and is hiring
DigitalQuickMobile, which creates apps for meetings and events, picked up an additional $3.2 million in funding from existing investors BDC IT Venture Fund and Vancity. The Vancouver-based company, founded in 2006, intends to use the funding infusion to continue its international expansion and to add resources, including hiring an additional 20 people to bolster its [...]
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TripAdvisor acquires cruise online-booking site CruiseWise
DigitalAre cruise transactions in TripAdvisor’s future? Probably not, but TripAdvisor has acquired CruiseWise, an online cruise-booking startup that was founded in 2010. And, TripAdvisor plans on integrating CruiseWise’s tech talent and some of its content into TripAdvisor’s CruiseCritic unit, a leading cruise news and user generated content site. You can expect that a major overhaul [...]
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Uber CEO calls Reuters funding scoop “completely false”
TransportUber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick says the startup is not raising funding, as an exclusive Reuters story published earlier today states. In response to questions from Skift requesting more details on the startup’s round of funding, Kalanick responded: The Reuters story is completely false and the product of extremely poor reporting and journalistic ethic. [...]
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Uber joins $1 billion valuation club with eBay-like growth
TransportRide-sharing service Uber is raising a new funding round at a valuation of $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation. If the company succeeds, it will join an elite group of start-ups that command 10-figure valuations. The situation underscores investors’ desire to pay premiums for any company they think might become the [...]
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Beijing car rental startup brings in new funding thanks to taxi-finding app
TransportBeijing-based car rental startup Yongche has been diversifying recently, launching a taxi finding app in the form of “DaChe Xiaomi”. Investors seem to be appreciating this move into a hot new niche in China – Yongche has secured a massive new round of funding this weekend, with its taxi app being a major focus of [...]
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Five travel startups hack roaming fees, restaurants and hotel bookings
DigitalInnovate, innovate, innovate is the mantra running through the minds of entrepreneurs entering the travel startup space today. It makes no difference to today’s founders whether there’s already an incumbent successfully handling their proposed problem or a tried and true solutions to their users’ most common pain points; and that’s a good thing. This week’s [...]
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Rocketmiles raises $2 million to turn hotel stays into airline miles
DigitalRocketmiles, a Chicago-based startup that offers travelers airline miles for hotel bookings, announced it raised $2 million in its first round of external funding today. Atlas Venture led the round and was joined by Link Ventures, Peterson Ventures, and several angel investors in the travel and loyalty industry. TripIt co-founder Scott Hintz and Jetsetter co-founder Drew [...]
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Social travel startups still alive in China, as Mafengwo gets $15 million funding
DestinationsMafengwo, a Chinese social travel service, has raised $ 15 million series B financing…with existing investor CapitalToday, who invested $ 5 million in last round, and QimingVentures. With more than one million entries of user-gen travel guides and over five million ratings and reviews, Mafengwo provides travelers with info..on hotels, flights, travel routes, visa, insurance, etc. In [...]
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GetYourGuide buys tours startup Gidsy & shuts it down
DigitalIt certainly wasn’t peer — or even peer-to-peer — pressure. Tours and activities company GetYourGuide scooped up fellow Berliner Gidsy, which offers a peer-to-peer platform connecting local tour guides with travelers. Johannes Reck, GetYourGuide CEO, tells Skift that Gidsy’s website “will close down as of today and we will work on GetYourGuide,” integrating Gidsy’s activities [...]
