ForwardX Raises $10 Million for Self-Pushing Luggage: Travel Startup Funding This Week
Photo Credit: ForwardX Robotics has invented luggage that follows you around thanks to sensors, motors, and a battery. The manufacturer is one of several companies that received funding this week. ForwardX Robotics
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Robotic luggage that follows you like a golden retriever. An app for ordering beautiful people to attend your event. A tool for making corporate travel as pleasant as leisure travel. These are the fantastical ideas that got funded this week.
Travel Startup Funding This Week
Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at jd@skift.com if you have funding news.
The total publicized this week was more than $27 million.
>>ForwardX, a luggage manufacturer, has raised $10 million in financing. Its soon-to-debut Ovis brand luggage uses cameras and object-recognition software to follow a traveler around, by their side, like a dog.
CDH Venture and Eastern Bell Venture Capital led the round. The company, founded in late 2016 in Beijing, China, separately raised $1 million from angel investors.
Smart luggage is a tough category. Previous attempts by companies like BlueSmart stumbled due to government regulations about batteries and other factors. ForwardX claimed it could avoid those problems.
A separate concern: The startup only sold a few hundred in advance orders and retail distribution will be costly.
>>Surkus, a Los Angeles-based provider of techno
