Skift Take

Nezasa, a provider of booking tools for travel agents, and Halan, an Egyptian ride-hailing service for tuk-tuks and motorcycles, have recently received funding.

Series: Startups 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.

This week travel startups announced more than $3 million in funding.

>>Nezasa, which offers an itinerary management tool to travel agents, has secured an approximately $2.52 million ($2.5 million Swiss franc) Series A investment.

SVC For Risk Capital led the round, which has been completed in stages of extensions since the end of 2016. Past investors Howzat Partners, Alpana Ventures, Reinhart Capital, and Investiere also participated.

Nezasa was founded in 2012 in Zurich as a consumer offering but later pivoted to business-to-business. It creates software that helps build itineraries and packages via a templated and collaborative interface.

More than 12,000 travel agents and tour operators use the service. Nezasa is now supporting the Amadeus subsidiary Traveltainment, a provider of travel agency software.

In 2018 Rolf Schafroth, former CEO of Kuoni Global Travel Services, became chairman of Nezasa, which is now hiring in Zurich and Lisbon.

>>Halan, a ride-hailing app for motorcycles and tuk-tuks, has raised an undisclosed “multi-million dollar funding round.

Battery Road Digital Holdings and Algebra Ventures led the round in the Egyptian company, which has enabled 3 million rides in Egypt and Sudan since its 2017 founding.

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. The rare ones that do often attract venture capital. Their funding rounds 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.

You’ll find our previous startup funding roundups, here.

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Tags: funding, startups, vcroundup

Photo credit: Nezasa is a sub-species of bamboo and also the name for a travel startup in Zurich that helps agents build complicated itineraries. Nezasa

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