Series A Investors Canaan Partners and Genacast Ventures join new investors CrunchFund and Paul Buchheit to fund product development and sales.
NEW YORK – Rocketrip, the first commercially available platform to save companies money on travel expenses by rewarding employees for cost-saving behavior, announced that it raised $3 million in an accelerated round of funding from current and new investors. The funding will be used to expedite product development and sales efforts.
The A-1 round was led by current investors Canaan Partners and Genacast Ventures, and includes participation from new investors CrunchFund and Paul Buchheit. Rocketrip closed a $2.6 million Series A round in January 2014 led by Canaan with participation from Genacast Ventures, Y Combinator, and other investors. To date, Rocketrip has raised $6.2 million in venture funding.
“Since January’s Series A round, results from Rocketrip’s Pilot Programs have provided quantifiable evidence that the platform will decrease corporate travel costs by more than 20 percent, fundamentally change employee spending behavior, and make travel weary employees feel better about hitting the road,” says Dan Ruch, Founder & CEO of Rocketrip. “We are all very encouraged by the positive feedback from current Rocketrip customers, as well as a deep pipeline of new business. The money raised from this A-1 round will be used primarily to drive our sales efforts as well as build out our product and engineering team to improve usability and integrate new features.”
In 2014, Rocketrip saved clients $200,000 across 1,000+ round trip air and hotel segments. Much of the savings came from expected shifts in behavior such as choosing the lowest fare at time of booking, purchasing 21+ days in advance, and booking coach over business class. However, several exciting and unanticipated money-saving scenarios emerged as employees were self motivated to beat their personalized budget in order to maximize Rocketrip Rewards. Examples include:
- Booking accommodations through Airbnb
- Using personal miles to pay for flights, demonstrating that employees value Rocketrip Rewards more than their airline miles
- Purchasing bundled air/car/hotel packages
- Staying with a friend
- Choosing a train instead of a plane.
“As a former Google employee, I’ve personally seen the benefit a reward-based travel policy offers both employees and finance departments,” said Paul Buchheit, Rocketrip investor, a former Google employee and creator of Gmail. “I know the model works, and I am thrilled to be part of the Rocketrip team making this travel program available to companies and business travelers everywhere.”
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
