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Rome2Rio

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Rome2Rio
FoundedSeptember 2010; 13 years ago (2010-09)
HeadquartersMelbourne,
Australia
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerOmio
Founder(s)Michael Cameron
Bernhard Tschirren
IndustryTravel website
Search engine

Rome2Rio is an Australian online multimodal transport journey planner offering travel services globally.[1] The company is based in Melbourne, Australia, and is owned by the German online travel comparison and booking website Omio.

History[edit]

Rome2Rio was founded by Bernhard Tschirren and Michael Cameron, former Microsoft software engineers, who began working on the project in September 2010.[2][3]The beta version of Rome2Rio was launched on 7 April 2011.[4][5]

In May 2012, Rod Cuthbert, founder of Viator, became CEO, and the company raised $450,000 in funding.[6][7] Rome2Rio has received several awards, including the People's Choice Award at Phocuswright 2012,[8] the TRAVELtech Global Collect Website of the Year in 2013,[9] the Data Specialist Award at the WITovation Awards in 2015,[10] and the Best Metasearch Award at the Travolution Awards in 2016.[11]

The company raised a total of $2.8 million in funding, including a $1.2 million grant from Commercialization Australia in 2014.[12] In July 2015, Rome2Rio announced that support for its white-label product would cease in January 2016 due to development resource pressures from rapid growth in its consumer business.[13] Initially, the company offered both white-label products and application programming interface options for partners integrating its multimodal results into websites and mobile apps.[14]

In 2016, the company introduced direct booking options.[15] In April 2017, Rod Cuthbert became Executive Chairman, Michael Cameron became CEO, and Bernie Tschirren was appointed Chief Architect. Kirsteene Phelan became COO.[16] In November 2017, Rome2Rio moved to a new headquarters in Richmond, Melbourne's digital quarter.[17]

In July 2019, Craig Penfold joined the company as Chief Technology Officer. In October 2019, Rome2Rio was acquired by Omio, a Berlin-based travel booking platform.[18][19] In January 2020, Yeswanth Munnangi became CEO, and Michael Cameron joined the board of directors.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Leo, Jen (5 January 2014). "Rome2Rio.com shows travelers how to get from here to there". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035.
  2. ^ May, Kevin (7 April 2011). "TLabs Showcase – Rome2Rio". Phocuswire.
  3. ^ "Rome2Rio's pitch wins first prize at the Azure BizSpark Camp!". Twitter. 6 February 2011.
  4. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia (7 April 2011). "Rome2Rio Is Google Maps With Airfare, Train And Driving Options". TechCrunch.
  5. ^ Ha, Anthony (7 April 2011). "Rome2Rio launches travel search with planes, trains, and automobiles". VentureBeat.
  6. ^ May, Kevin (29 May 2012). "Rome2Rio grabs $450,000 investment round, appoints ex-Viator boss as interim CEO". Phocuswire.
  7. ^ WAUTERS, ROBIN (29 May 2012). "Travel search firm Rome2Rio goes B2B, raises $450k and appoints interim CEO". The Next Web.
  8. ^ "Phocuswright Conference : 2012 Travel Innovation Summit Alumni". Northstar Travel Group.
  9. ^ KELLY, MARTIN (19 September 2013). "Rome2Rio Beats Strong Field to Win Website of the Year". Travel Trends. Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  10. ^ Yong, Danielle (20 October 2015). "Tearjerker in Thailand and karaoke-basketball fusion win at WITovation Awards". Northstar Travel Group.
  11. ^ "Travolution Awards: Winners revealed". Travolution. 30 November 2016.
  12. ^ KELLY, MARTIN (2 July 2014). "Rome2Rio Gets Another $1.2 million in Govt Funding". Travel Trends. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  13. ^ May, Kevin (15 July 2015). "Rome2Rio axes white label to prioritise own consumer brand". Phocuswire.
  14. ^ Bryant, Martin (7 February 2013). "Multi-Modal Travel Search Engine Rome2Rio Opens Up Free API Access". The Next Web.
  15. ^ Cowen, Martin (15 May 2017). "Rome2Rio ramps up direct booking options". Phocuswire.
  16. ^ Cameron, Michael (24 April 2017). "As growth continues, new roles at Rome2Rio". Rome2Rio.
  17. ^ Cameron, Michael (6 December 2017). "Rome2Rio graduates to new headquarters in Digital Richmond". Rome2Rio.
  18. ^ Lomas, Natasha (31 October 2019). "Omio buys Rome2Rio to build out its global travel aggregator business". TechCrunch.
  19. ^ Schaal, Dennis (31 October 2019). "Omio Buys Rival Rome2Rio in Mashup of Door-to-Door Booking Sites". Skift.
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