Travel
Flyr Raises $295 Million, Largest Travel Tech Deal This Year
Skift Take
Flyr is using the funding to support growth and scale the company, which saw recurring revenue growth of 290% over the last 12 months.
Flyr, an airline retail platform, said Thursday that it has raised a $225 million series D round, one of the largest single raises ever for a travel tech company and the largest so far this year.
The company said it has now raised over $500 million. Flyr also secured $70 million in credit.
San Francisco-based Flyr says its AI-powered platform helps airlines offer dynamic pricing, personalized offers, and other digital products. The company has also been rolling out similar products for hotels.
Amadeus and Sabre are each pushing their own newly released versions of this technology, which align with the industry’s future goals for airline retail, including new distribution capability (NDC) guidelines from IATA. As each of those companies has said, the move toward modern retail for airlines is slow, far behind similar experiences with banking and online shopping.
Flyr said that its annualized recurring revenue grew by 290% over the past 12 months. Clients include Avianca, JetBlue, Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic, Best Western Scandinavia, and The Boca Raton.
WestCap led the series D round, with support from BlackRock, Streamlined Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and the airline Avianca. Vista Credit Partners led the debt financing.
Laurence Tosi, managing partner and founder of WestCap, is joining the Flyr board. Tosi was the chief financial officer for both Airbnb and Blackstone, and was the chief operations officer for Merrill Lynch Investment Banking and Trading.
“Much of the travel industry has been technologically stagnant for years, reliant on a handful of legacy incumbents with limited capacity to innovate,” Tosi said in a statement. “FLYR delivers the open and dynamic platform the travel industry needs to better serve travelers and expand their services.”