- Real-time travel data exchange platform Journera announced it has raised $11.6 million in Series B funding
Real-time travel data exchange platform Journera announced it has raised $11.6 million in Series B funding as the company ramps up travel recovery efforts through targeted data and a “whole journey” view of the customer. The $11.6 million funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and B Capital — both of which were investors in Journera’s Series A round. And existing investors Pritzker Group Venture Capital and The Boston Consulting Group also joined the round.
Journera was co-founded by BCG and Jeffrey G. Katz — who is the former founding chairman, president and CEO of Orbitz Worldwide, president of SABRE’s Travel Information Network, and CEO of Swissair.
Travel-related companies utilize the Journera platform to create better experiences and more seamless end-to-end travel journeys for their customers in a secure way.
And the Journera platform brings together data from throughout the travel journey to open up new possibilities for travelers – from automatically rebooking your rental car reservation when your flight is cancelled to having your hotel room ready early upon your arrival at your destination in the morning to delivering your bags straight to your room at the hotel so you don’t have to wait at the carousel. The Journera platform can even be used to create new experiences that enhance social distancing during the travel journey such as automatically dispatching a rideshare based on real-time flight information to avoid waiting in crowds at the curb, or automatically dispatching a room key to the hotel guest upon flight arrival to facilitate “contactless” check-in at the property.
Now Journera is positioned to help travel brands accelerate their road to recovery by helping them smartly deploy marketing dollars and customer service resources against the needs of their most likely and most valuable customers. And the platform also allows them to more smartly plan flight capacity, hotel re-openings, and other strategic initiatives based on a dynamic data-driven view across the entire industry.
The proceeds of the funding round will be directed at further commercialization of the platform across the travel industry, including a new Recovery Analytics offering, software development, and sales and marketing. Recently, Journera introduced its JourneyVision product — which places the powerful Journera platform in the hands of hotel management and frontline staff to enable individualized experiences for their guests.
Journera’s commercial partners include Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, United Airlines, and American Airlines. And together, these travel companies account for nearly 40% of all travel in the U.S.
Key Quotes:
“As the industry faces once-in-a-generation challenges, data will be a central tenet of recovery. We’re pleased to have the confidence of our investors in our vision as we help the travel industry create the very best experiences for their most valuable, most frequent travelers – the people who will be first to get back on the road and in the air in the coming weeks and months. When those core customers have great experiences it will inspire their loyalty over the long term.”
– Journera CEO Jeffrey Katz
“The bar for consumers’ expectations for the quality of their travel experience is steadily getting raised. Journera has the opportunity to improve those experiences by building connective tissue for disparate logistical travel systems. With the benefit of improved and real time data, hospitality and travel brands can offer their customers better service. Jeff Katz and his team bring world class leadership and deep industry expertise to this endeavor and we’re excited to see their continued progress.”
– Jeff Jordan, Managing Partner of Andreessen Horowitz
“We believe that the travel experience can be greatly improved using smart, well-built technologies. Journera has built a platform that lets any travel supplier immediately impact the traveling experience for the better, which means more satisfied customers and robust new service opportunities for travel companies.”
– Raj Ganguly, Co-Founder & Partner of B Capital Group
