JetBlue Backs Transparent and Accor Backs Treebo: Travel Startup Funding This Week
Photo Credit: A luxury vacation rental available for booking in the Costa del Sol from OneFineStay, a brand that's part of Accor. Accor has invested in Treebo Hotels. Transparent is a startup that tracks vacation rental and other accommodation sales. Onefinestay
Skift Take
It's reassuring that JetBlue Technology Ventures is still actively investing after founder Bonny Simi's recent departure. But it's a bit of a headscratcher to see Accor investing in Treebo for its hotel software, given that the hospitality group has its own tech subsidiary D-Edge.
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 jd@skift.com if you have funding news.This week, travel startups announced more than $30 million in funding.
>>Transparent, a vacation rental market intelligence company, has received an undisclosed investment from JetBlue Tech Ventures (JTV), the venture capital subsidiary of JetBlue Airways.
The round brought the startup's total funding raised to date to $2.8 million from investors, including K Fund, Highgate Ventures, and Kima Ventures.
"Given JetBlue's interest in offering short-term rental options to its customers and the travel industry's recent demand volatility, accurate data is imperative to making sound business decisions," said Ryan Chou, an investment associate at JTV.
JetBlue said last November that it was planning to cross-sell its customers on non-flight products such as short-term rentals using a partner but marketing the rentals through a brand it owns, likely operating customer service in-house, as Skift reported.
Transparent pulls together a mix
