UK: London-based travel startup Duffel has raised $21.5 million in Series A funding from Benchmark.
Duffel, which has yet to launch, will offer an online platform for travel agents, tour operators and travel management companies.
Benchmark is joined in this round by Blossom Capital as well as Index Ventures, which also participated in Duffel’s $4.7 million seed round in 2018.
Steve Domin, co-founder and CEO of Duffel, said: “The travel industry is underpinned by archaic software and processes that are fundamentally prohibitive for the modern day traveller. We are reinventing the underwiring between online agents and the providers – airlines, hotels, transport operators – in much the same way that the payments world is changing for merchants, because of tools like Adyen and Stripe.”
Duffel will use the funds raised to hire more engineers and will continue to grow its team in London in preparation for launch this autumn.
Chetan Puttagunta, general partner at Benchmark, said: “We have been watching Duffel from a distance and we are incredibly excited by the possibility it has to create something valuable for customers and travel providers alike. Duffel is focused on providing a better booking experience by building a platform that is easy to use with deep functionality.”
For the latest developments in the business travel and TMC space, don’t miss next month’s ENGAGE event, which takes place on July 2 in London, in conjunction with Serviced Apartment Summit Europe.</p
