Montreal-based travel booking platform Busbud has closed an $11M Series B round led by iNovia Capital. New investors backing the company include Teralys, Claridge and Plaza Ventures. Existing investor Real Ventures also participated in the round.
As its name suggests, Busbud’s platform is focused on intercity bus and coach travel. But it’s also inked partnerships with some of the multi-modal travel booking platforms which are also aiming to simplify travel planning and ticket buying online, as a route to expand its reach.
Busbud says its website has about 3 million unique monthly visitors from 100+ countries at this point. It also offers ticket booking via its Android and iOS apps. On the bus travel supplier side, it says it has more than 1,300 partner operators in its marketplace.
The founders say the new financing will go towards scaling the business, growing the team (especially on the engineering and product dev side) and for further fueling international expansion by adding more countries and destinations — notably in Asia.
Close to 90 per cent of the bus routes offered on Busbud are now bookable directly via its site and apps (vs searches being redirected to bus operator partners’ websites to complete a booking) — suggesting a successful transition from being a mixed search and booking marketplace, in its earlier years, to largely capturing all booking revenue now.
It also intends to work on improving the mobile experience, location mapping, user travel reviews, bus amenity info, and adding more payment options. Other features it wants to work on include real time bus tracking, better itinerary info and travel tips.
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