TTD: US travel search giant set for major European push
US travel search engine Kayak.com is poised to break into the European market after securing a financing deal from a London-based private equity firm.
Accel Partners, a technology-focused company, has provided $11.5 million for an extensive offline and online marketing campaign in June and for European expansion in the autumn.
“Kayak.com is eager to reshape the European online travel market in the same way we have improved how Americans search and book travel,” said its CTO and co-founder Paul English.
As part of the deal, two Accel executives have joined the Kayak.com team. Harry Nelis joins the board of directors and Judy Gibbons, formally corporate vice president in Microsoft MSN’s Division, joins as advisor.
“Already our product plans have seen the benefit of their expertise in mobile applications and community/social networking, and their on-the-ground leadership and relationships in European markets will be essential to Kayak.com’s global growth,” added English.
Claiming to be the world’s largest travel search engine, Kayak.com scans more than 100 travel sites to find prices and itineraries for hundreds of airlines, more than 115,000 hotels and all major rental car companies.
Its board of directors include several e-commerce heavyweights – chairman Terry Jones was founder and former CEO of Travelocity, Greg Slyngstad was founder and former senior vice president at Expedia.com, Joel Cutler was managing director at General Catalyst Partners, Steve Hafner, Kayak.com co-founder and CEO, was formerly executive vice president at Orbitz, and English was previously vice president at Intuit, Inc.
Accel Partners joins existing investors General Catalyst Partners, Sequoia Capital and America Online. Kayak.com has raised a total of $30 million since the company launched in January 2004.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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