Duffel, a British travel tech company, has raised a $30 million Series B to grow its platform and change the infrastructure behind online travel booking. The round was led by Index Ventures and joined by Benchmark Capital and Blossom Capital.
The Duffel platform enables travel agencies to plug in directly to airlines’ reservation systems via an API so that they can pull real-time flight offers, make bookings, access live seat availability, and buy extra services. The platform already accesses major players such as American Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa Group, Aegean Airlines, Vueling, and Iberia.
Co-founder and CEO Steve Domin said: “A new breed of online agencies want to access reservation systems quickly and seamlessly. By reinventing the underwiring between online agents and airlines we can transform the world of travel booking and reduce barriers to entry for innovative new companies that are offering travellers a whole new way of creating a holiday or trip.”
Duffel is also working closely with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the trade association for the world’s airlines, on an initiative to modernise the distribution landscape for air travel. Founded in 2017, the company has raised $56 million to date. The latest funding will go toward expanding the engineering team and the company's footprint in Europe and North America.
Jan Hammer, partner at Index Ventures, said: “We are incredibly impressed by the Duffel team, who we have supported since the days of their seed funding. There is an opportunity here to transform the booking experience for travellers and ease many of the pain points in the industry. From the launch of budget airlines to sharing economy businesses like Airbnb, travel has changed and Duffel will provide the tools, built from the ground up, that make the next wave of innovation possible.”
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