Amadeus is putting more money into travel startups through its Amadeus Ventures division – this time backing Betterez and Flyr. The undisclosed investments join its backing of a number of travel startups including Yapta, BlueSmart and BookingPal. The Flyr investment is part of a wider deal originally disclosed in January this…
Another week, another consumer-facing travel app goes to the busy startup graveyard in the sky. Postcard & Tag will close in a few weeks in what its CEO Ruth Thomason says is a “heart-wrenching” decision, amid sadness over letting down its “users, our employees, our board and advisors, and…
Four-year-old Brazilian flight search engine Voopter has attracted the attention of overseas investors again, this time almost doubling its previous round. Travel Capitalist Ventures is behind the new Series B investment of $600,000 in the Sao Paulo-based company. This follows an earlier round of €350,000 from Global Founders Capital,…
TV advertising is long dead – a part of marketing’s ancien régime that communicates less effectively today than a pet rock. NB: This is a viewpoint by Simon Finne, co-founder of Loopon. Think about it. When was the last time you actually watched a TV commercial instead of skipping…
The financial backer of SiteMinder and Stackla has led a $1.8 million investment in Rezdy, the tours and activities technology provider. Bailadour Technology Investments was joined by fellow Australian money house Microequities VC Fund in the round. The latest injection of funding will be used to support Rezdy’s expansion…
Since becoming available widely in April 2016, Facebook Live has become the go-to platform for live video streaming. Facebook’s user penetration brought live streaming to the world’s biggest audience. Existing services, such as Twitter’s Periscope and YouTube Live, hadn’t enjoyed the level of mainstream visibility that Facebook’s product instantly received….
Airbnb’s latest SEC filing showing another billion dollars has been added to its warchest. The filing also shows that 40 investors were involved in the round, which reportedly values the business at $31 billion. Coverage is also saying the business was profitable in the second half of 2016 and…
Who says the drive to instant bookings on search engines can be hard (well, TripAdvisor, for starters) – in vacation rentals it appears to be working out very well. Vacation rental marketplace Tripping has quietly been adding instant booking functionality to its search results in the past few months,…
In the cult 1990s movie “Strange Days,” a virtual reality apparatus pulls images straight from a user’s cerebral cortex. Though solidly in the realm of science fiction, a similar kind of intense interactive experience is not far off in the real world. NB: This is a viewpoint by Tony…
Brisbane Airport has partnered with SITA and Air New Zealand, to launch a trial of the SITA Smart Path facial recognition technology. It allows passengers to identify themselves throughout the journey using biometrics–from check-in to boarding—without requiring boarding passes, passports or other travel documents to be presented at each…