Israeli travel tech co Arbitrip raises $4m from Teddy Sagi

Arbitrip founders Photo: Israel Hedri
Arbitrip founders Photo: Israel Hedri

The Tel Aviv based company has developed advanced technology for booking hotel rooms for business trips.

Teddy Sagi Group has invested $4 million in Israeli company Arbitrip, which develops advanced technology for booking hotel rooms for business trips. Abritrip's smart system serves many major businesses and allows them to swiftly find suitable hotel rooms for trips while reducing travel costs significantly.

Arbitrip was founded in 2015 by Benny Yonovich (34), and Orel Jossef (27) both graduates of the Israeli army's technological unit in the Intelligence Corps. Benny Yonovich serves as CEO and Orel Jossef as CTO. Following the investment, the company will hire 10 employees (mainly developers) to work at its offices in central Tel Aviv and it will expand its business development and sales operations overseas.

Yonovich said: "We are delighted with the Teddy Sagi Group investment which demonstrates confidence in our vision, abilities, and in our innovation and technology. The investment will help us hire additional developers and fulfill our plan to expand to new markets. We are only starting out but we believe our hotel booking platform will become the world's main platform for business trips."

Arbitrip has created smart, machine learning based algorithms that study user preferences and translate them into precise offerings for their needs. Consequently, the smart profile knows what to identify when a return trip is made to the same destination region wherever it is worldwide, estimate the user's budget and even propose the hotels with the amenities that are important for the user - Wi-Fi, fitness room, concierge services. Furthermore, the system can identify whether proximity to the destination is more important or whether it is preferable to stay in a hotel that is better but further away. All this means that AI technology can assist the business traveler by personalization and letting travel managers and travel agents find the most suitable hotel for every trip within seconds and within the budget.

The startup has captured a major market share of the business travel of Israel companies, particularly in leading high-tech corporates which are more characterized by being open-minded and on top of their business trip budget control. Arbitrip recently began working with several travel agencies that can offer their customers hotel rooms using the company's technology. This is a major boost for travel agencies that hardly operate in the hotel booking sector.

The investment deal was handled by Advs. Simcha Koevary, Ori Kaufman, and Roni Rosenzweig of the Meitar, Liquornik Geva Leshem Tal law firm.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 26, 2018

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2018

Arbitrip founders Photo: Israel Hedri
Arbitrip founders Photo: Israel Hedri
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