Airside Raises Millions From Bain Capital for Digital Identity Tools: Travel Startup Funding This Week

This week, startups relevant to the travel sector announced more than $24 million in funding.

>>Airside Mobile, a provider of digital identity solutions for travel and other sectors, has raised an undisclosed round of funding.

Bain Capital Ventures led the round, the Arlington, Virginia-based startup confirmed to Skift. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the startup said it might raise around $13 million in this investment round.

A sign advertising the mobile passport app by a passport control station at Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s airport in 2016. Source: Airside

Earlier this year, Amadeus said that its investment arm had invested in Airside. The Madrid-based travel technology giant said it also planned to deploy some of the startup’s services.

Airside’s identity verification platform allows U.S. residents and Canadian visitors to the U.S. to use a mobile passport application to pass through customs faster. People have downloaded the Mobile Passport mobile app more than 8 million times for use in more than 30 U.S. airports.

The company offers digital identity solutions for airlines, cruise lines, hotel operators, and other travel partners. It strives to reduce the privacy regulation risk of maintaining a centralized database of photographs and additional personal information.

“With Airside, the traveler owns and controls their data on their device,” said CEO and Co-founder Hans Miller.

Digital identity services are more top of mind this year as travel companies consider leveraging sharing data about coronavirus lab test results and experiment with adopting touch-less biometric solutions.

>>Breezeway, a property management platform, raised $8 million in Series A funding.

Schooner Capital led the round. Tamarisc Ventures, Krillion Ventures, and Launch Capital also took part.

The Boston-based startup aims to expand its platform for managing the comprehensive cleaning, preparation, care, and service of property. Breezeway wants to develop its intelligent operations software further for property managers and owners.

Jeremy Gall, who previously founded the vacation rental booking site FlipKey and then sold it to TripAdvisor, founded Breezeway in 2017.

>>Delightree, a workflow automation app for deskless employees, has raised $3 million in seed funding from Accel, Emergent Ventures, Brainstorm Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, and other angel investors.

Delightree isn’t exclusively focused on travel, but it is working with some notable hospitality businesses, such as the franchise hotel owners in the U.S. at brands like Best Western, La Quinta, and Holiday Inn Express.

Based in San Francisco, the company launched in September 2019 and strives to empower franchise owners and store managers by digitizing their operating procedures and helping achieve compliance, team accountability, and improved performance.

“Delightree is focusing on an industry segment—franchise businesses—that has traditionally struggled to find technology solutions that are right-sized for them,” said Dinesh Katiyar, a partner at Accel, in a statement.

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. These fundraising rounds can assist in 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.