The algorithms developed by this San Francisco-based startup company enabling airfare predictions up to 120 days in advance could revolutionize the travel and travel insurance markets. This $500,000 funding raised to launch FLYR International marks the 4th investment by AXA Seed Factory since its creation in June 2013.
AXA Seed Factory is a seed fund specialized in digital services related to insurance and banking businesses. The fund operates as a business incubator and accelerator that co-invests with Business Angels or Venture Capital Funds in innovative and high potential start-up companies. The Fund is looking for disruptive ideas from which new market practices could emerge, with a special interest in financial decision support tools based on the use of big data. The investment in FLYR announced today is perfectly in line with this approach.
The concept created by FLYR helps improve clients’ control over their travel preparation. Currently, when buying a ticket and possibly travel insurance afterwards, people have little control over the costs implied. With this, insurance products will enable people to secure airfare prices for a given time before they decide to buy. Travelers will therefore reduce costs and uncertainty when planning their trips. Ultimately, given the increasing weight of the online travel industry which reached close to 580 Dollar billion sales in 2014, this innovative idea represents a strong potential for a Group like AXA. The travel insurance market alone is worth 14 Dollar billion with 5% yearly growth prospects over the coming 3 years.
“With the ability to predict airfares up to 120 days in advance, FLYR allows the client to know when to buy his ticket at the best price” said Minh Q. Tran, Managing Partner of AXA Seed Factory. “This decision support tool has the potential to fundamentally change the tourism and travel insurance industries,” he added.
FLYR’s API already provides daily millions of predictions in the US and will extend this offer to Europe in early 2015. “We are proud to partner with AXA Seed Factory and bring our solutions to many more travelers in France and Europe,” said Jean Tripier, CEO and co-founder of FLYR.
About AXA Seed Factory
AXA Seed Factory is a seed fund specialized in digital insurance and banking. The fund acts as a holding built to help experienced entrepreneurs to launch new disruptive ideas. It also operates like a business incubator and ideas accelerator which co-invests with business angels or venture capital funds in innovating startups with strong synergies among them. For more information : www.axaseedfactory.com
About FLYR
FLYR, Inc. is a data science company first conceived to relieve a universal pain point among travelers — the guessing game of booking airfares. While previous prediction solutions only allowed for basic forecasts on a route-by-route basis, the Foresight engine produces a comprehensive set of prediction data down to the individual flight. For more information : www.flyrlabs.com.
Posted by: |