A Chicago travel startup led by the founder of Orbitz has shut its doors.
Journera announced the decision to shut down after failing to become profitable.
"Our reality is that we were not able to get Journera to a scale where profitability was within reach," Journera founder and CEO Jeffrey Katz said in a statement.
Journera first launched in 2016 and had raised $30.6 million to-date, according to Crunchbase, including a Series B-1 round it completed in the summer of 2022. The funding was led by B Capital and included investors like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), BCG and PAR Capital. Journera also raised a Series B in 2020 that included a16z, B Capital and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
Katz launched Chicago-based Orbitz in 2000 before it was eventually bought by Expedia in 2015 for $1.3 billion. Katz previously served as CEO of Swissair and president of Sabre's Travel Information Network.
Journera had hoped to create a more seamless end-to-end travel experience for customers. Prior to the pandemic, it received a patent for its technology that allows travel companies to securely match traveler records across multiple providers.
In an op-ed released in PhocusWire on Monday, however, Katz cited legislative obstacles, such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation and the California Consumer Privacy Act, which, along with data breaches at major travel brands, made Journera's mission more difficult, with travel companies focused on using their own data.
