Articles tagged “spacs”

Silicon Valley sometimes mocks travel companies for not being as nimble as tech startups. So it's refreshing to learn that JetBlue Airways was a valuable mentor to Tomorrow.io, a tech startup that is now being valued at more than $700 million.

Vacasa's market cap comeuppance in its first day of trading doesn't have huge significance. Are many private valuations inflated these days? For sure. But Vacasa's debut in a SPAC deal is a milestone for a bevy of startups seeking similar paths.

Omicron won't deter Vacasa's debut as a publicly traded company as it takes advantage of the pandemic-era surge in vacation rental growth.

Kudos to Rafael Museri and Daniel Rudasevski who co-founded Selina in 2015 and brought the company to this point. But investors face a tricky decision about how to value this startup compared to traditional lodging groups.

The old boys network is still as strong as can be in online travel and elsewhere. It shows up in several ways, although it was far from a decisive factor, in the pending Vacasa SPAC deal. But those decades-old ties sure didn't hurt, either.

Sonder debuted in France in the third quarter and expanded its presence in Mexico, but these development will all take a back seat if the company can indeed see its ticker symbol trading before the end of the year.

Sonder revenues are rising while its losses are widening, even as SPAC deals are coming under additional pressure. The new funding raised will help continue to focus on building the company and hopefully keep the economics in check enough to complete the deal.

Grab emerged as a leading superapp because of conditions specific to Southeast Asia. Don't look for U.S. and European copycats to get traction.

Investing in the "last mile" of travel can help on a few fronts, such as climate protection, gender equality, and economic development, according to Victoria Grace, founder of blank check firm Queen's Gambit. Makes sense on several levels.

Both Sonder and Vacasa need to clean up customer service issues, but they are probably not so acute as to give investors much pause.