Technology

Posted on July 31, 2018 by staff

Bus search engine wins €1.4m to drive growth

Technology

CheckMyBus, the global meta-search engine for long-distance buses, has completed its €1.4m Series A financing round.

New lead investor is Marchmont Ventures, an office co-founded by the former CEO and CFO of Momondo Group, Hugo Burge and Alan Martin. They join the early stage investors HOWZAT Partners, AngelGate and founding angel investors.

Since its foundation in 2013, the Nuremberg-based start-up has developed a unique platform that allows users from all over the world to compare global bus travel options.

With more bus providers and airport shuttles available than on any other similar website, and offering millions of daily bus departures to internet users, CheckMyBus has managed to become the world’s leading meta-search engine in just a few years.

Two online travel industry veterans stand behind the new investor, Marchmont Ventures. Hugo Burge joined Cheapflights 18 years ago as an investor and acted as CEO of the Momondo Group for the past six years, while Alan Martin spent six years as CFO of the Momondo Group.

Both see ground transportation as a huge opportunity and unfinished business in the travel sector.

“CheckMyBus has an impressive story – they have managed to become a global player in the bus market in very short time with a small team and impressive and growing international footprint,” said Hugo Burge, co-founder of Marchmont Ventures.

“We believe there is huge untapped potential in this area. Ground transportation, especially buses, is a new frontier for innovation and radical improvements through the digital experience.

“We look forward to supporting the CheckMyBus team to make the search for buses faster, easier and better, and to achieve leadership in this exciting sector.”

With the new investment, CheckMyBus aims to accelerate its growth by investing in product and marketing, with the purpose of transforming an important part of the transportation market.

The ambitious goal is to show the best transportation offers worldwide, map all categories of bus transport and remove complexities for users.

Given the fact that almost 90 per cent of bookings for buses are still made offline, switching them into the digital era presents a huge growth potential and opportunity for improvements.

“We are very happy to welcome Marchmont Ventures on board,” says Marc Hofmann, CEO of CheckMyBus.

“The expertise and huge experience of Hugo and Alan in developing success stories like momondo and Cheapflights, as well as their passion and personal commitment, will strongly support CheckMyBus on our success path.

“We believe ground mobility, and bus as its largest segment, have the capacity for strong growth and disruption in online travel.

“An exciting journey lies ahead of us, and we are looking forward to go down this road with the support of strong investors who believe in our mission – to help digitise the global bus market and allow users around the world to easily and quickly find the best travel options.”