Travefy, a group travel planning service, knows that some things are done better in groups. Today the Lincoln, Nebraska-based startup says it has acquired San Francisco-based group vacation organizer Tripeese.
Tnooz profiled Travefy last autumn, when it received $320,000 in seed funding.
The merger will give Travefy access to more users. Travefy will benefit by bringing into an advisory capacity Tripeese's co-founders, Rodrigo Boscolo and Matheus Riolfi, who are Wharton and Harvard Business School students.
The Tripeese duo released their trip planner in mid-2013 and say they learned a lot by forming partnerships with Expedia's affiliate network and HomeAway, the vacation rental listings platform.
The partners declined to disclose the transaction terms. The Tripeese founders had raised a $65,000 seed round from friends and family.
The merger will be completed on July 31, with Tripeese accounts being transferred and rebranded to Tripeese.
Travefy CEO David Chait told Fast Company his site earns affiliate commissions and payment transfer fees (for settling expenses among a group) on about one in ten trips planned on its site.
Chait tells Tnooz that's based on about 1,000 multi-person trips planned to date.
At the end of 2013, Travefy released its full product beta, which lets users collaborate on trip itineraries, booking, and expense tracking.
The site, which now has four employees, added the option of booking flights in May, making for a more complete offering.
Who says you can't build a promising travel tech startup in the Great Plains?