EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Europe’s top flight search site Skyscanner has acquired Zoombu, one of the UK’s most exciting online travel start-ups.
Launched in 2010, Zoombu pioneered a new door to door approach to online travel search, bringing together information about many modes of transport so users can compare complete end to end routes to their destination.
“As travellers ourselves we recognise that there are more ways to get around than flights only,” said Gareth Williams, Skyscanner CEO.
“Covering other travel options on the Skyscanner site is something we’ve wanted to do from the start, but air travel is a complex area and we wanted to get that right before expanding into other transport options. Zoombu is an ideal fit for Skyscanner. We really like the Zoombu team – they, and the technology, are very impressive and we’re delighted they’re joining us.”
Rail travel will be the first area that Skyscanner focuses on following the Zoombu acquisition. Williams added: “With increasing investment being made in rail infrastructure in Europe and worldwide, train travel is the immediate priority for us and we aim to launch this on the site in the spring.”
Zoombu founders Rachel Armitage and Alistair Hann have moved into key roles at Skyscanner, based at the company’s Edinburgh head office.
“This is a very exciting move for the Zoombu team,” said Zoombu co-founder Rachel Armitage. “Our strengths lie in the product and technology development. By combining forces with such an established and respected online travel search company we get a fast track route to bringing our vision of a better search experience to a vast user base. We’ve always had a lot of admiration for the Skyscanner product and the team behind it and we are really looking forward to the opportunities ahead.”
About Skyscanner
Skyscanner is Europe’s leading travel search site providing instant online comparisons on flight prices for over 670,000 routes on over 600 airlines, as well car hire and holidays. Skyscanner was founded in 2001 by three IT professionals, Gareth Williams, Barry Smith and Bonamy Grimes. Traffic to the site now comes from 244 countries and territories worldwide. With more than 10 million users per month, Skyscanner generates downstream revenues of over one billion dollars every year.
About Zoombu
Zoombu started up in 2008 and was launched to users in February 2010 by founders Dr Alistair Hann and Rachel Armitage to provide multiple transport options in one search. The team has been recognised for their innovation within the travel industry and has won a string of prestigious awards including Eye for Travel’s Best Start-up in 2009, The University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School Venture Fund 2009 Winner (selected by Sir Philip Green); The Travel Trade Gazette Big Idea finalist 2009; and Finalist at Seedcamp 2008. Most recently, Zoombu made it to the final 5 of 1,500 businesses in the Amazon Web Services Start-up Challenge 2010, the only European company to reach this stage.