Why Private Equity Firm Certares Is Dabbling in Travel Venture Investing
Photo Caption: A Tesla Model 3 available for rent at Hertz, a company backed by Certares. Source: Hertz.
Skift Take
Chantal Noble Haldorsen appears to be one of the rising stars of travel tech investing. Savvy entrepreneurs will note her insights.
Certares was founded as a private equity firm in 2012 and has gone on to invest heavily in travel companies — most prominently American Express Global Business Travel, Hertz Corp., airline group Latam, and Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings. But the New York-based investments specialist also has a fledgling venture investment practice.
Chantal Noble Haldorsen leads Certares’ venture lead strategy, which in recent months helped with a $19 million Series A round in UFODrive, a rental service for electric vehicles, that Certares and one of its portfolio companies, Hertz Corp., co-led.
Certares, whose leadership includes alumni from JP Morgan Chase, Sabre and One Equity Partners, calls its approach a "strategy" rather than a formal practice.
"We don't definitely consider what we're doing to be corporate venture," said Haldorsen, a Harvard MBA who previously worked at Torch Capital, an early stage consumer venture capital firm.
The firm's inter
