Routehappy Raises $3 Million; Launches Routehappy Hub to Help Airlines and Distributors Create and Deliver Rich Product Content to Differentiate Flight Shopping

NEW YORK, Sept 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Routehappy, the product differentiation platform for air travel, today announced it has secured $3 million in Series B funding from air travel industry veteran PAR Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investors, iNovia Capital and Contour Venture Partners. Routehappy will use the capital in the launch of Routehappy Hub for airline and distributor customers as airlines integrate targeted rich product attribute content into their sales and marketing channels.

"Routehappy is at a pivotal moment in our efforts to help airlines differentiate," said Robert Albert, CEO at Routehappy. "We are launching Routehappy Hub to help airlines create and deliver structured rich content in all of their direct and indirect sales and marketing channels, to better monetize flight shopping. We'll be announcing partnerships soon, but ten airlines worldwide, including some of the largest, are creating rich product content in Routehappy Hub for integration into search results and upgrade offers on their own websites and via major distributor channels. Large distributors and solution providers are starting to source airline rich content from Routehappy Hub as they innovate the flight shopping experience. We're thrilled to have PAR's expertise at our side. Along with our fair flight scoring system and comprehensive, comparable flight amenities, Routehappy Hub is a key piece of the puzzle to help the industry we serve successfully and efficiently decommoditize flight shopping."

Routehappy has been building products to help airlines differentiate since its founding in 2011.  In less than one year, Routehappy is raising its Series B after closing its Series A funding last December.

"As longstanding investors in airlines and companies serving the airline industry, we're keenly aware that the popularity of online shopping has led consumers to increasingly view air travel as a commodity," said Paul Reeder, general partner at PAR Capital Ventures. "Routehappy provides airlines with the tools and systems to fight this trend by more effectively differentiating and merchandising the broad variety of products and services they have to offer. Based on an enthusiastic response by suppliers and intermediaries around the world, we are confident that Routehappy's data and platform will play an integral role in the marketing and distribution of air travel during the years ahead. We're pleased to be leading Routehappy's Series B and look forward to helping shape the development of the company going forward."

Routehappy Hub

Routehappy Hub is a software platform that allows airlines to create Universal Product Attributes (UPAs), a Routehappy content standard that combines descriptive and visual content targeted by aircraft, cabin, flight, airport, fare, segment, channel and other criteria, for display in any channel.

Airlines can better merchandise their flights and products in search results, upgrade offers, reservations, check-in emails and more with relevant, targeted UPAs that they create in Routehappy Hub.

Key features

• Simple interface and workflow that makes training and use easy across an enterprise
• Supported media include title, description, call to action, icon, photos, videos, and virtual tours
• Comprehensive targeting by aircraft, airport, terminal, time, duration, date, fare type, cabin, standard category, custom category, channel and more
• Lists that group criteria together for easier recurring targeting (e.g. new business class aircraft)
• Standard categories that tag content for the most common uses; unlimited custom categories
• Robust filtering of UPAs by cabin, category, airport, aircraft and specific flight
• Multiple views of media, including list and grid views
• Dashboard to authorize or restrict access to content by partner airline, distributor and platform
• Scalable API to source UPAs by flight or flight search result set, for display on high traffic sites

In addition to using UPAs directly on airline websites, mobile apps, and emails, Routehappy Hub allows airlines to efficiently share their rich product content with their sales and marketing partners, including GDSs, OTAs, metasearchers, corporate booking tools, ad agencies, ancillary technologies, upgrade software, and others. Routehappy Hub is channel-agnostic, a single-source for an airline's targeted rich product attribute content wherever and however they want to display it, including standards like NDC.

Airlines retain control over their product attribute content and can instantly update content worldwide as their products and services evolve. Routehappy offers a variety of subscription tiers allowing airlines to manage content themselves or use Routehappy Product Specialists to do it for them.

With Routehappy approaching 1 billion queries to its Scores & Amenities API, the team is preparing for broad adoption of Scores & Amenities and airline rich content UPAs throughout flight sales and marketing channels. Routehappy products help airlines and their distributors differentiate products and better monetize flight shopping, addressing a critical gap in the flight shopping ecosystem.

To see example UPAs from Routehappy trial airlines, please visit Routehappy's demo site at routehappy.com. UPAs are shared with permission from the airline.

ABOUT ROUTEHAPPY

Routehappy is the product differentiation platform for air travel, providing the industry with data, content, and tools to improve flight shopping. Routehappy's Scores & Amenity API rates flights worldwide and provides amenities like seat, entertainment, Wi-Fi, power, and fresh food by flight. Routehappy Hub is a SaaS platform that enables airlines to create, target, and deliver their product attribute content wherever flights are displayed, helping airlines better monetize their products. Routehappy is based in New York. For more information, visit www.routehappy.com.

ABOUT PAR CAPITAL VENTURES

PAR Capital Ventures makes private investments in travel and technology companies. PAR Capital Ventures is managed by Paul A. Reeder, III. Separately, Mr. Reeder is also the president of PAR Capital Management, which manages a private investment fund with approximately $4.5 billion of assets under management. Through PAR Capital Management, Mr. Reeder was an early investor in ITA Software (acquired by Google and Zillow)

Media Contact: North 6th Agency, Inc. (For Routehappy)
212-334-9753, [email protected]

SOURCE Routehappy

Related Links

http://www.routehappy.com

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