City travel startup Duffel bags $21.5m round from Benchmark
Travel booking software startup Duffel today closed a $21.5m (£17.1m) in a series A funding round led by Snap and Uber-backer Benchmark.
Blossom Capital also participated, as well as existing investor Index Ventures. The startup has raised $26.2m to date.
“The travel industry is underpinned by archaic software and processes that are fundamentally prohibitive for the modern day traveller,” said chief executive Steve Domin.
“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.”
The startup originated out of the Silicon Valley major tech accelerator Y Combinator last year.
It plans to use the funding to hire more engineers for its London headquarters.
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.”