[NEWS] Still in stealth mode, Duffel raises $21.5m in Series A from Benchmark for its travel platform – Loganspace

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[NEWS] Still in stealth mode, Duffel raises $21.5m in Series A from Benchmark for its travel platform – Loganspace


Ten months previouslyLondon startup Duffel hinted that it would be “a recent solution to book shuttle on-line, aiming on the reserving abilities ‘discontinuance to complete’”, and announced a wholesome $4.7M funding round, nonetheless not well-known else.

This present day it goes extra, asserting a $21.5m in Series A funding from US VC giantBenchmark,which additionally backed Snap,Twitterand Uber. Benchmark is joined by Blossom Capital and Index Ventures, who participated in Duffel’s $4.7m seed round closing year.

With this news, we not much less than earn somewhat extra detail. It’ll be a B2B providing, allowing particular particular person shuttle brokers to scrub on-line shuttle management corporations and tour operators to present a “seamless shuttle abilities” to their discontinuance customers, making the reserving abilities extra efficient, faster and more cost-effective.

Is that this a recent Sabre? Steve Domin, co-founder and CEO ofDuffel,hints that it must be along these lines: “The shuttle enterprise is underpinned by used instrument and processes that are fundamentally prohibitive for the stylish day traveler. We’re reinventing the underwiring between on-line brokers and the providers – airlines, hotels, transport operators – in well-known the identical design that the payments world is altering for merchants, due to the tools love Adyen and Stripe.”

In other phrases, Duffel appears to be like to be constructing a recent instrument stack for shuttle, in the identical design that challenger banks started from scratch to originate themselves extra agile than the laggard, incumbent banks.

Duffel became as soon as one of manyY CombinatorS18 cohort and has attach apart collectively a team drawn from their alumni corporations along with GoCardless, Gitlab and Turo. It plans to open this Autumn.

Chetan Puttagunta, total companion at Benchmark, said: “We beget now been staring at Duffel from a distance and we are incredibly angry by the chance it has to earn one thing treasured for customers and shuttle providers alike. Duffel is targeted on providing a bigger reserving abilities by constructing a platform that is easy to make use of with deep efficiency.”

Ophelia Brown,founding father of Blossom Capital, said: “Duffel has been obvious on its vision to toughen the shuttle abilities for everyone from day one. That is a immense instance of the fashion that European founders are changing into extra ambitious than ever earlier than.”

The market is waiting with baited-breath to net out if Duffel’s stellar fund-elevating capabilities can in a roundabout design match the claims made for the product.

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