Kyte Raises $30 Million for Rental Cars: Travel Startup Funding This Week

This week, travel startups announced more than $41 million in funding.

>>Kyte, a rental car provider that delivers vehicles to customers, closed a $30 million round of Series A funding.

Park West Asset Management and Sterling Road led the round. Kyte’s Series A round saw participation from new and existing investors, including DN Capital, Amplo, 1984 Ventures, FundersClub, Moving Capital, Rosecliff Ventures, Seraph Group, Unpopular Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund, and the founders of German transportation unicorn, FlixBus. 

The San Francisco-based startup raised a $9 million seed round in late 2020. The company, begun in 2019, is rolling out its full product vision in phases. Its eventual goal of full teleoperation and autonomous vehicle delivery.

“We envision a world where people living in cities don’t own cars and streets aren’t clogged with parked cars,” said Nikolaus Volk, co-founder.

In the meantime, the company delivers rental cars in 10 U.S. cities — namely Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

>>Jurny, a hospitality tech company, raised an additional $9.5 million.

Mucker Capital led the round.

Jurny’s software helps small- to medium-sized operators run hotels, vacation rentals, and short-term rentals.

“Operators using Jurny’s best-in-class tech are seeing, on average, a 20 percent increase in revenue, a 50 percent decrease in overhead costs, and a doubling of net operating income within the first 30 days of implementation,” claimed Erik Rannala, co-founder and managing partner at Mucker Capital.

The startup offers channel management, point of sale, room management, facility management, marketing tools, and smart home solutions.

>>Go Zayaan, a Bangladesh-based travel startup, raised a $2.6 million seed round.

Wavemaker Partners led the round.

A news release by Go Zayaan is essentially an online travel agency. Today, its main offering is accommodations, but tomorrow it plans to add an array of products and services.

>>Airheart, a collaborative travel service, raised $250,000 in pre-seed funding.

The female-founded company is based in Austin, Texas. Its first product is an explorer tool that lets travelers input their itinerary and see restriction information in real-time. 

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.