Travel Startup Funding This Week – Skift

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Senior Travel Tech Editor Sean O’Neill at so@skift.com if you have funding news.

This week, travel startups announced about $45 million in funding.

>>Fly Now Pay Later, a London-based startup, has raised about $6 million in equity and about $36 million in debt for a total of about $42 million (€39.2 million).

Revenio Capital, Shawbrook Bank, and BCI Finance participated in the Series A financing. Fly Now Pay Later began offering installment payments to consumers in 2015. Before this round, it raised an undisclosed amount of “several millions” in venture and debt.

Travelers can use the company’s loans to stagger the payments for a vacation booked online with selected participating sellers and resellers. The company’s U.S. counterparts include Uplift and Affirm. Fly Now Pay Later plans to expand from the UK to France and Germany this year.

It also plans to add travel booking partners to its list, which includes LastMinute.com.

>>Tripfuser, a a service that brings consumers and travel agents together with local experts to create bookable vacation itineraries, has raised $3 million ($4.5 million Australian) in funding.

RACV (Royal Automobile Club of Victoria) led the round in the Melbourne, Australia-based company. RACV has a hand in several travel and tourism businesses, such as through its stakes in 10 Club and Resort properties in Australia.

The startup has also installed a new CEO, Matt McCann. The company was founded in 2016.

Skift Cheat Sheet:
We define a startup as a company formed to test and build a repeatable and scalable business model. Few companies meet that definition. The rare ones that do often attract venture capital. Their funding rounds come in waves.

Seed capital is money used to start a business, often led by angel investors and friends or family.

Series A financing is typically drawn from venture capitalists. The round aims to help a startup’s founders make sure that their product is something that customers truly want to buy.

Series B financing is mainly about venture capitalist firms helping a company grow faster. These fundraising rounds can assist in recruiting skilled workers and developing cost-effective marketing.

Series C financing is ordinarily about helping a company expand, such as through acquisitions. In addition to VCs, hedge funds, investment banks, and private equity firms often participate.

Series D, E and beyond These mainly mature businesses and the funding round may help a company prepare to go public or be acquired. A variety of types of private investors might participate.

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