Airline, Hotel, and Silicon Valley Heavyweights Back Startup Aiming to Fix Travel Data Hurdle
Skift Take
Journera aims to act like a magnet attracting relevant information across company databases about a traveler’s complete trip. It would help, say, a hotel learn when a high-status customer’s flight has been delayed. While the idea is great in theory, it may prove elusive in practice.
Journera, a Chicago-based travel technology company, is telling investors it will break a currently unbreakable code: ensure cooperation among airlines, hotel chains, and other travel suppliers while boosting revenue and customer satisfaction.
Journera aims to link data scattered across various company databases to provide airlines, hotels and other companies a unified view of any given traveler's journey.
Three years ago, Jeffrey Katz — the founding CEO of travel agency Orbitz, former CEO of Swissair, and president of the distribution division of travel technology company Sabre — co-founded the business. On Thursday, Journera announced a $9 million Series A investment round.
The dollar figure is less notable than the venture capitalists contributing equity to it: B Capital led the investment round. On board are also the famed Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Just as significantly, a handful of giant U.S. travel providers — American Airlines, Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott, United, and an affiliate of Hyatt — have signed commercial agreements to use Journera's services.
One reason they all bit: to connect data and gain a fuller picture of a traveler's journey, spending, and online researching habits. As of now, companies rely on guesswork.
"Think about it as a view of an end-to-end itinerary along with information
