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London-based tripAbrood secures £645K for its AI-powered family travel booking platform

London-based tripAbrood, the world’s first virtual family travel assistant and AI-driven travel platform revolutionises the way families discover and book holidays. The company just bagged £645K in funding, making its total funding to just about £1 million.

To develop its AI travel platform

The latest funding round was led by Ben Davey, the former CEO of Barclays Ventures. Other investors that pumped funding into tripAbrood include Vic Walia, former Global Vice President Brand Marketing for Expedia Group, Charles Petruccelli, former President of Global Travel Services at American Express; Andy Mullinger and James Meekings, co-founders of Funding Circle.

Also, Will Keith, former VC and Head of Sales and Origination at PrimaryBid and Michel Taride, former Group President of Hertz International. Charles Petruccelli and Will Keith will join the tripAbrood board.

The funds from the second round of seed funding will be used to launch and scale tripAbrood’s global product to the UK market. Also, it will focus on further developing its revolutionary AI-powered family booking experience. It came seven months after its September 2020 beta-launch.

Alexa-Maria Rathbone Barker, who is one of just 30 women from across the world selected to sit on the 2020 Techstars and Barclay’s programme #femalefoundersfirst, commented: “The closure of this latest funding round is a true validation of our vision and the traction that the world’s first AI-powered family travel assistant – called ‘Skye’ – is already making in the market. Skye looks to guide users seamlessly through the discovery and booking process, narrowing options to those that are tailor-made to their needs, and aiming to cut average search to booking times from 30 hours to just 10 minutes.”

Charles Petruccelli, Chair of the tripAbrood board and former President of Global Travel Services at American Express, continued: “tripAbrood is addressing a segment of customers that has been largely overlooked by all online booking platforms building its uniqueness on the power of AI. This explains the success of this second seed round and the reason why it attracted such a panel of successful and experienced business angels. We are all convinced with the huge growth potential of the tailored family vacations space and the talent of the tripAbrood leadership team.”

Ketan Anandstated: “By using a blend of travel data insights, AI and our industry knowledge, we have been building tripAbrood from the ground up to create a totally new kind of family travel discovery experience, one we know fits the pace and needs of parents today. The success of our funding efforts prove the power of our platform, and the growth potential for machine learning across the travel industry. We will continue to build tripAbrood, secure in the knowledge that our backers support our pioneering product development.”

Rapid growth

Founded in 2019 by Alexa-Maria Rathbone Barker and Ketan Anand, tripAbrood’s growth has been rapid. Since its beta-launch with five key European destinations in September 2020, despite COVID-related extensive travel restrictions, the business saw a 10% conversion rate in its initial live release. On the other hand, the industry average is 3-5%. Also, there is a whopping 700% increase in their mailing list from September 2020 to April 2021. The company achieved a 5-star Excellent Rating on Trustpilot.

The post London-based tripAbrood secures £645K for its AI-powered family travel booking platform appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).

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