A Chicago travel startup just raised a new round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz to help the travel and hospitality industry bounce back from Covid slowdowns.
Journera announced Wednesday that it raised a $11.6 million Series B round led by a16z and B Capital. Other investors include Pritzker Group Venture Capital and The Boston Consulting Group. Each of those backers previously invested in Journera's $9 million Series A round in 2018.
Founded in 2016, Journera's software allows travel companies to communicate with each other and provide a more seamless end-to-end travel experience for their customers. For example, Journera can automatically rebook a rental car reservation when a traveler's flight is canceled, or make sure a hotel room is ready early when a guest arrives to their destination in the morning.
Led by CEO Jeffrey Katz, the founder of Orbitz Worldwide, Journera works with big-name travel companies like Hilton, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, United Airlines and American Airlines.
Journera creates a real-time data exchange between travel companies, allowing those companies to create better experiences for customers and have more data around a person's entire travel experience.
"As the industry faces once-in-a-generation challenges, data will be a central tenet of recovery," Katz said in a statement. "We're pleased to have the confidence of our investors in our vision as we help the travel industry create the very best experiences for their most valuable, most frequent travelers – the people who will be first to get back on the road and in the air in the coming weeks and months."
