20 Feb 2017

Utrip raises $4 million to build out consumer and B2B trip planning service

Travel planning service Utrip has secured a Series A investment round to the tune $4 million from a string of Seattle and Silicon Valley supporters.

Plug & Play, Tiempo Capital and Acorn Ventures are amongst the finance houses backing the company, with angel money coming in from the likes of Gary Wipfler (Apple treasurer) and Richard Galanti (Costco chief financial officer).

The company first emerged in 2012 (TLabs here) as a standard trip planning tool for consumers but has since added a sizeable white label and B2B focus to its strategy.

The new funding will be used to invest in its mobile platform and other IT projects, as well as bolster its white label infrastructure for industry partners.

At its core, Utrip builds itineraries for users with recommendations for things-to-do and attractions in a destination.

It is used by a number of organisations (tourism boards, hotels and attractions) to power a front-end, planning service for web visitors.

Founder and CEO Gilad Berenstein says:

“By emphasizing personalization and discovery for every phase of the travel lifecycle with our advanced artificial intelligence, Utrip allows its partners to be an integral digital companion for travelers in a way that seamless and economical for airlines, cruise lines and hotels to destination marketing organizations to points of interest.”

The company previously raised $850,000 in December 2014 and $750,000 earlier in the same year, both as seed rounds.

On the executive team, ex-Expedia CFO Michael Adler was added to its board and Chris Manderino (a former-manager at Microsoft and Dwellable) joined this month as chief operating officer.