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Let’s catch up on this week’s top innovations, trends, and startup highlights:
- Flight + Hotel packages… plus tours. Lastminute.com has partnered with TUI Musement to offer tours and activities as add-ons to flight-plus-hotel packages in over 100 countries. While this partnership boosts TUI Musement’s distribution, for Lastminute.com it means offering more dynamic holiday packages for its customers.
- Turning rewards into free vacation. Singapore-based loyalty platform Heymax.ai just raised $2.6 million in seed funding. The platform helps users to make the most of their credit card and merchant rewards, aiming to give people a free vacation each year. Currently counting on 50,000 users, they’ve already redeemed over 10,000 flights – and counting.
- DIY ski holiday packages. Bristol-based Heidi has raised €6.6 million to grow its platform and expand its services. Founded in 2018, this online ski travel company offers over 6,000 accommodations in 400+ ski resorts, making it easy to book group holidays, lift passes, and ski hire. With this investment, Heidi aims to bring more flexible and comprehensive booking options to travelers hitting the slopes.
- Cutting out the middlemen. Directo, a Spanish startup making direct hotel bookings easier, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding. Launched in February 2023, the startup offers a Chrome extension that flags direct booking options on sites like Booking.com and Airbnb. It cuts out the middlemen and can help travelers save money and boosts direct sales for hosts – a potential shake up for the sector…
- Dynamic solutions for airline pricing. FlyNava Technologies has secured $2.5 million in pre-series A funding from Ideaspring Capital. FlyNava uses AI to provide real-time, dynamic pricing to airlines, helping them optimize fares and increase efficiency and profits. This funding will help the startup to expand into new markets, develop new products, and enhance their tech infrastructure, aiming to offer tailored solutions to improve airline operations.