Ad Tech Firm Urban Airship Raises $25 Million: Travel Startup Funding 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 [email protected] if you have funding news.

The total publicized this week was nearly $50 million.

Earlier this week we reported that Peek, a software vendor for tour operators, raised a $23 million Series B funding round.

>>Urban Airship, an advertising technology company with many travel company clients, has raised $25 million in Series F funding.

Foundry Group led the round. The Portland, Ore.-based startup, which claims to be breaking even, has raised more than $100.7 million, the company said.

Companies in travel, such as Alaska Airlines, and in other sectors use Urban Airship for mobile push messaging via a variety of channels, from mobile apps to SMS/text to email. For example, in the past year, the startup helped Google Pay, the consumer payment service of the search giant, to begin to offer ticketing and boarding pass via mobile devices.

Founded in 2009, Urban Airship today has 181 employees and 24 job openings.

>>Rateboard, a revenue management software startup, has raised about $1 million.

AWS Gründerfond, an Austrian fund for startups and other business angels, led the round. Rateboard previously raised about $516,000.

The company helps hotel revenue managers price their rooms more savvily by using statistical models and data on market supply and demand. The 15-employee company serves more than 100 hotels in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

Have an aviation-themed startup? Take it to the next level by participating in the Air Pitch Startup Competition 2018.

Skift Cheat Sheet:
We define a startup as a company formed to test and build a repeatable and scalable business model. Few companies meet that definition and the rare ones that do often attract venture capital — where money is provided today to fund growth in exchange for a promise of large returns in the future.

Funding tends to come in waves. Seed capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family.

Series A financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy.

Series B financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster, or scale up. These fundraising rounds can assist with recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.

Series C financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate.

Series D, E and beyond These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate.

Check out our previous startup funding roundups, here. And also: Skift’s Top Travel Startups to Watch 2018.