Ozlo, which developed the Ozlo app for iOS and Android, specializes in understanding ambiguous phrases in subjective text-based conversations — for example, determining whether a restaurant is "group friendly" or serves good oysters. The acquisition could help Facebook build more compelling AI-powered experiences within Messenger. Ozlo's knowledge graph is one of the firm's key differentiators. [...]
TUI Group has tapped digital travel discovery platform Utrip to help personalize the traveler planning experience through artificial intelligence. The new pilot program between TUI Destination Services, the experiences arm of the German global tourism company, and Utrip is designed to curate user-specific travel packages for TUI’s 20 million customers. Utrip’s technology - which combines [...]
The Chinese ecommerce giant has taken the 38% stake in the company via its Alibaba Investment wing, in a move touted as bringing strategic retail and travel technology closer to its core business. Shiji has been on the scene for almost 20 years but has expanded rapidly in the last decade to become a serious [...]
An Austin, Texas-based property management company that differentiates itself by using smart-home technology and local customer service teams has raised $31 million in Series D funding to expand. Current investor Adams Street Partners led the funding of TurnKey Vacation Rentals with participation from existing investor Altos Ventures and two new institutional investors. Since the company launched in [...]
Smart tourism startup Lvji has received a RMB 120 million B round of financing, backed by Qianhai FOF and Pufeng Fund. Lvji is a location-based smart tour guide featuring GPS positioning, automatic interpretation, route recommendation and other functions through Apps, WeChat accounts, website and service terminals in attractions. The smart tour guide’s cornerstone function is a hand-drawn cartoon map [...]
Swvl, an Egyptian startup that is disrupting the way commuters travel in the MENA region, has raised series B funding of “tens of millions of dollars” to enable the company to solidify its position as a global leader in building tech-enabled public transportation and finance the launch of its R&D facility in Berlin, Germany. read [...]
IfOnly, a San Francisco-based online marketplace that offers more than 3,000 unique experiences to its adventuresome users, has raised $20 million in Series D funding led by MasterCard, which was joined by other strategic investors, including Hyatt Hotels and Sotheby’s. read more
Nor1, Inc., the leader in hospitality upgrade, upsell, and merchandising technology, has acquired Stay Delightful, a messaging-based guest service and ancillary revenue generation platform for the hospitality industry. Based in Denver, CO, Stay Delightful enables hotels to connect with guests pre-, during, and post-stay over SMS and communicate across their teams through a web interface [...]
El pasado 5 de diciembre se celebró el Travel Innovation Summit Mallorca 2018, organizado por Top Seeds Lab, con presencia de directivos de empresas turísticas, emprendedores e inversores en Travel Tech. En el mismo hicieron su presentación, ante un Jurado de Expertos conformado por Limited Partners de la Sociedad de Capital Riesgo Travel Tech 1, de la que [...]
Bobby Healy explains, while at the Phocuswright Conference in Amsterdam, the role that Cartrawler is playing, evolving from a premium technology provider in the car rental space to become a comprehensive marketplace covering many different types of travel services thanks to its tech foundation