These Startups Want to Digitize the World's Intercity Buses
Skift Take
Intercity bus travel isn't glamorous. But at least one company will drag this sector online and make piles of money along the way.
Travel Tech Briefing
Editor’s Note: Exclusive reporting on technology’s impact on the travel industry, delivered every Thursday. The briefing will guide executives as they decide if their companies should “build, buy, or partner” to stay ahead.The majority of the world's long-distance trips are done by bus, but the market has remained stubbornly offline in most countries. Yet a handful of companies are dragging the sector, kicking and screaming, online.
New players are helping operators either sell tickets to international travelers, run their businesses more efficiently with software, or both. Activity has increased recently, and here are the highlights:
Bookaway Group, a Tel Aviv-based company that's an online travel agency but also provides reservation platforms and operational software for intercity bus and ferry operators, this month said that it had acquired Plataforma 10, an online travel agency based in Argentina.Bookaway Group raised $35 million during the pandemic and plans to acquire more companies.Busbud, a Montreal-based online travel agency for intercity bus tickets and a startup building software for selling intercity coach tickets, in Febraury acquiredBusbud closed an $11 million ($15 million Canadian) Series C round of financing during the pandemic. It helps 4,000 operators in 80 countries sell tickets. Busbud last month acquired Recorrido, a leading intercity bus marketplace based in Santiago, Chile, and it plans to scale