The company behind the global rail ticketing platform SilverCore has attracted $15 million in funding.
Silverail secures £15m to accelerate growth
The company behind the global rail ticketing platform SilverCore has attracted $15 million in funding.
The investment will enable SilverRail to accelerate the addition of rail companies and the development of cross-border and inter-carrier journey planning.
The company’s goal is to have all of Europe’s major rail firms integrated into the SilverCore platform in the next two years as part of a vision to make passenger rail travel as easy to book as airline tickets.
Canaan Partners led the Series B funding as the first investment in a new $600 million fund. SilverRail’s current investors Sutter Hill, Accel Partners, GrandBanks Capital and Brook Ventures supported the funding round.
SilverRail co-founder and chief executive Aaron Gowell said: “The $300 billion rail market is the single fastest growing sector of travel today.
“Passenger rail will increasingly dominate regional travel, driven by the perfect storm of four factors: 200 mph trains replacing regional air travel; rail markets deregulating and creating competition; a 90% cleaner environmental footprint than air travel; and, $200 billion a year investment in infrastructure – two times the investment in the commercial air industry.”
Canaan Partners general partner John Balen added: “We invested in SilverRail because of the company’s world-class team and innovative technology platform that’s completely disrupting the multibillion-dollar train travel industry.
“Over 60% of rail tickets are still sold offline at the train station immediately prior to departure, but consumers and travel booking companies want a more streamlined process.
“SilverRail has created the first technology platform that makes purchasing international train tickets as easily as air travel, and we’re excited about the huge growth prospects of this business.”
