Lola, the US-based operator of a personalised travel platform, increased its series B round to $25m yesterday with $5m each from corporate venturing unit GV and venture capital firm Tenaya Capital.
Tenaya and GV, a subsidiary of internet technology group Alphabet, joined venture capital firms Charles River Ventures, General Catalyst and Accel, who supplied the first $15m last month.
Founded by Paul English, the co-founder and chief technology officer of travel search engine Kayak, Lola has built an app that provides users with a personalised travel booking platform covering services including flights, hotel rooms and rental cars.
The app uses human travel agents and learns a user’s preferences over time, though English told TechCrunch that Lola plans to soon release a new iteration that will incorporate more artificial intelligence-equipped features.
The series B round follows $19.7m in series A funding closed in April 2016 from Accel and General Catalyst. The series A round included capital Lola raised in its previous incarnation as consumer technology incubator Blade.
English said in a blog post on Medium: “We are honoured to join the GV family, and look forward to gaining from their insight and network. Our Tenaya relationship runs deep, as they were one of the early investors at Kayak. I feel fortunate to have them as loyal supporters.”