3 Travel Start-Ups

These entrepreneurs want to help you escape the winter blues and never lose track of your miles.

Andres Fabris and Andy Chen Traxo
Fabris, 40, first conceived of Dallas-based Traxo in 2009 as a networking tool to keep up with his grad school classmates; later, together with co-founder Chen, also 40, he evolved it into the “ultimate digital travel wallet”. Its app consolidates users’ travel info from more than 100 sites, supplies recommendations and discounts, and shares itineraries as desired. It also keeps track of travel-related loyalty points and records an archive of user travel. The company has raised $5.7 million in funding in October.



Johannes Reck and Tao Tao GetYourGuide
The two 29-year-olds founded Get YourGuide in 2008 as a one-stop web destination for travellers looking for the best diversions in any major city around the globe. The Zurich- and Berlin-based operation expanded to the US last year and is today the lar-gest internet resource for attractions and activities, with more than 25,000 listings and best-price guarantees. Investors have pledged $16 million, and GetYourGuide claims more than a million visitors each month.




Sam Shank and Jared Simon HotelTonight
With “three taps and a swipe”, users of the app HotelTonight arrange same-day bookings at 5,000 hotels in more than 250 cities around the world. Shank, 40, and Simon, 39, launched it in 2011; it’s available for free in five languages and has been downloaded nearly 9 million times. Users can book up to a five-night stay anytime between 9 am and 2 am, local time. A $45 million funding infusion in September brought the total amount invested in the company to $80 million.

Images: Kathryn Dill