Smartair, which offers a search engine for finding flights and vacation packages, has completed a $6 million financing round led by Talma Travel and Tours, owned by Erez Shmul; Alpha Capital; and international venture capital funds.
Following the financing round, Smartair and Talma will jointly found a company for establishing and managing tourism websites in Israel and overseas, based on the platform developed by Smartair. The new company will manage the Smartair website and other websites in Israel, as well as websites that it has launched in South Africa and other places. The company plans to expand its operations in Israel and launch similar activities in rapidly growing developing countries.
Smartair, managed by founder and chairman Erez Bousso, was founded in 2015. It sells hundreds of thousands of airline tickets a year in the Israeli market.
The global tourism market is projected to reach $3.5 trillion in 2025, among other things due to growth in markets such as China and India, where the number of passengers is rising steeply. Smartair says that in these markets, despite the increase in passengers traveling abroad, 80% of the orders for tourist services are still made through travel agents, rather than online theaters.
Smartair's goal is to accelerate the transition to online orders in Africa, Eastern Europe, South America, and Asia by setting up local websites in cooperation with local tourism concerns, as it has already done in South Africa. These websites are based on technology developed by Smartair in Israel. The websites enable surfers to buy flights, hotels, and packages including a flight, a hotel, attractions, and car rental.
Following the financing round, Bousso said, "The tourism market in Israel and worldwide is in the process of change. The customer continues to pose new challenges to us, and the need to innovate, create value, and be unique is becoming important. Someone able to provide the right solutions at the right time will lead the market. In recent years, we have invested in improving the technology and work processes. We're very proud of our success in the Israeli market. We have identified great potential in the developing markets that we are targeting. "
Shmul said, "The investment and the partnership of the Talma Travel and Tours group in Smartair is a continuation of the group's strategy of investing in growth engines and developing technological solutions in tourism in general, and business tourism in particular."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 23, 2019
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