Funding puts Rome2Rio on fast track

Rome2Rio, the Melbourne-based startup offering multi-modal travel search, has appointed Viator founder and former CEO and chairman, Rod Cuthbert, as Interim CEO.

Cuthbert, who recently re-located to Melbourne from San Francisco, had previously been an advisor to the company.

The company also announced a $450,000 round of seed funding. Co-founder Michael Cameron said there was substantial investor interest.

Investors in the round are the Melbourne entrepreneurs Guy King & Bevan Clark — founders and former owners of RetailMeNot, which was acquired recently by Whaleshark — and a leading Online Travel Agency based in Asia.

Cuthbert said the company is looking forward to building a substantial B2B presence in the online travel space.

"There"s a good vibe about Rome2Rio within the industry, and a growing view that consumers will soon demand multi-modal search results, particularly for travel in Europe and other markets where air travel is often not the best option.

"Those two things combine to provide an opening for Rome2Rio to deliver tools that allow any site to incorporate multi-modal search results, at little or no cost, into their own offerings."

The company said it planned to release several new versions of its API along with white label and widget- based solution over the coming months.

It also plans the release of a multi-hop, multi-modal enhancement that will allow users to plan journeys containing up to a dozen legs, each with a choice of transport offerings.

Rome2Rio lets users enter any town, address or landmark as their destination: rome2rio searches flights, trains, buses, ferries and driving routes to show the best options for getting there.