Booking.com Alums and Other Online Travel Vets Team Up to Disrupt Cruise Bookings
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Dennis' Online Travel Briefing
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Executive Editor and online travel rockstar Dennis Schaal will bring readers exclusive reporting and insight into the business of online travel and digital booking, and how this sector has an impact across the travel industry.The old boys network in online travel — yes, let's call it what it is — has reunited again to accomplish a formidable goal that has frustrated numerous startups in the past. The aim is to disrupt online cruise booking.
New York-based Cruisebound, founded in 2021, reportedly announced a $10 million Series A funding round led by former Booking Holdings chairman and CEO Jeffery Boyd and Par Capital Ventures. The cruise startup, which aims to simplify the complex and still predominantly offline process of booking a cruise, has raised $12.2 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
In addition to Boyd, who joins the Cruisebound board, and Par Capital, the Series A announcement and a list of all-male advisors and investors on Cruisebound.com include Tripadvisor co-founder Steve Kaufer; Concur co-founder Steve Singh; Booking Holdings/Priceline alum Adrian Currie and Arthur Kosten; the co-founders of Rocket Travel (acquired by Booking Holdings) Bjorn Larsen and Jay Hoffmann; TripIt co-founder Scott Hintz, and ex-Flight Centre Group exec Atle Skalleberg, among others.
Rocket Travel alums Pierre-Oliver Lepa
