TravelBird, an online deals service that was one of the longer-term survivors of the early flash sales era, has shut, blaming a lack of funding.
A notice on the home page of the Netherlands-based business says it has had to stop selling deals because “no new funding came in on time.”
The statement goes on to say that trips booked using TravelBird are covered by SGR, the Dutch guarantee scheme.
The company launched in 2010 and, according to the statement, reached profit in the first half of 2018.
It goes on to say that it was affected by seasonal fluctuations, which meant a “delay in payments to partners.”
The company received funding of €16.5 million in May 2015 from Global Founders Capital, a subsidiary of Rocket Internet, giving it a total of $24 million over three rounds.
Rocket Internet had participated in previous funding rounds for the company and owned more than 25% of the company.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
Six months after the Series B round, in October 2015, TravelBird made some staff and country reductions saying it was part of the process of scaling up from a startup.
At the time, it pulled out of Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain and said it would not be renewing the contracts of about 100 employees. At the time it had more than 600 employees.
The TravelBird statement on its homepage says the company has 310 employees.