Travel Industry Gets More Personal Through Technology

As Airline Data Platform ATPCO Acquires iNovia Portfolio Company Routehappy

We are pleased to join in announcing the acquisition of iNovia portfolio company Routehappy, by Airline Data Platform and travel economics industry leader ATPCO, in a deal that will greatly accelerate the mission and vision in which we first invested back in 2014. With ATPCO’s estimated 87% market share of worldwide ticket sales, Routehappy’s rich content solutionplatform will soon be part of most of the world’s travel purchase experience, and will be the de facto industry standard for airline rich content.

Routehappy initially attracted our investment for a few reasons: first, it fit squarely into our thesis on travel. We believe that the democratization of information — and ensuing hike in expectations for personalization — will naturally extend into the travel space. Consumers increasingly want access to the finer points of travel, and Routehappy delivers. Since 2011, the company has made information about creature comforts like Wi-Fi, power, entertainment system, fresh food, seat, and layout information available during the booking process through a cloud-based platform and API called Flightpad. In just a few short years, Routehappy created a merchandising opportunity out of previously uncatalogued data; helping numerousover 50 distributors like Expedia ticket platforms and 300 airlines to meet increased consumer demand for data.

From an investment thesis standpoint, we also loved that founder Robert Albert came with deep industry knowledge, and saw a market that was ready for an overhaul. His 7 years at Travelocity, combined with a strong background in content and business development, led him to see a moment in time and to run with it. We believe that founders know their markets best — and Robert’s insight and drive to build a technical solution has been a great example of that in practice. The company was first to market, and continues to lead in a space with essentially no competitors. This acquisition is another proof in point that industry insiders have unique, early, high quality information about how to make transformative technologies that pay off.

A great quote from our Venture Partner Geoff Judge — who lead this great investment for iNovia Capital: “Bob and his high performing team have a company culture focused on excellence — as Bob would say, ‘we’re doing the work of our life’. He led the team from an initial concept for improving consumer experience in travel — through the deeply technical process of building a channel, platform, and delivery agnostic rich content platform — and his vision is about to hit the main stage.”

We believe that with this acquisition, ATPCO customers, including airlines, will be able to immediately improve their consumer experience using simple integrations. Airlines that provide content to ATPCO and Routehappy will be able to trust that both their fares and unique rich content are consistently delivered to all retailers. Sellers and distribution channels who subscribe to ATPCO and Routehappy data will be able to trust they have the most accurate pricing data and rich content associated with each airline offer. This consistency will create better, more authentic, and richer shopping experiences for the end consumer.

As we applaud Routehappy’s acquisition this week, we also keep our thoughts focused on how, as investors, we can continue to support shifts in how travel can be improved with technology. We look forward to seeing how other companies in our portfolio — like bus ticketing platform Busbud and conversational hotel ticketing platform SnapTravel — can continue to help improvements in the sector take flight by constantly focusing on the traveler’s experience.

Link to APTCO official press release