Australian Travel Company Acquires Halifax’s Trip Ninja
HALIFAX — Less than three months after announcing it was ceasing operations, Halifax’s Trip Ninja has been acquired by an Australian travel company.
Webjet Limited says it plans to use Trip Ninja to bolster its online travel agency services.
Webjet operates a digital travel business that spans both wholesale and consumer markets. Its B2B business, WebBeds, is the world’s second-largest accommodation supplier in the wholesale travel market. Its B2C travel business, Webjet, is a leading online travel agency brand in Australia and New Zealand.
Trip Ninja is an online platform that helps travel agents book complex flight itineraries faster, using machine learning.
Co-founder and CEO Andres Collart said today he’s excited to begin the new partnership.
“From the very beginning, we have focused on pursuing and solving complex technical problems in travel and are excited to continue this journey with Webjet,” Collart wrote in an announcement of the sale.
The news is a stark turnaround from an announcement Trip Ninja made a few months ago. In October, the company announced it was shutting down thanks to a slow restart in the international travel industry.
“With the length of the pandemic and our heavy focus on multi-destination travel we believe it’s in the best interest of all stakeholders to cease active development,” CEO Andres Collart said.
At the time, Collart told Huddle the airline industry wouldn’t recover fast enough to bring Trip Ninja’s service, which relies on multi-destination travel, back into demand.
“Ultimately I don’t think it’s a good use of anyone’s money to have us just waiting for the market to recover. It’s not an exciting prospect for me, either, to just wait,” Collart said.
He said he was looking forward to taking the skills he learned growing Trip Ninja to a larger company. He also said the technology Trip Ninja was built on was for sale.
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On November 24, WebJet said it started discussions with Trip Ninja just as the company was preparing to shut down. The eventual result was today’s announcement.
In a news release, managing director John Guscic said WebJet sees “significant growth opportunities for the Webjet OTA business as international travel starts to return.”
He said Trip Ninja’s technology will play “a key role” in helping grow the company’s share of the international flight market.
“We are excited to have been able to acquire such an innovative business and are delighted the founders are staying on to realize their vision of automating the most complex areas of travel,” Guscic said.
Webjet said it intends to implement the Trip Ninja products into the Webjet OTA, as well as sell the products to other travel industry participants globally.
Trip Ninja said it will continue to operate independently but work closely with the WebJet team. Both Collart and his co-founder Brett Zigler will remain on after the acquisition.
“We look forward to reconnecting with industry partners and retaking conversations on how to use Trip Ninja’s technology in their businesses worldwide,” Collart said in a news release.
He did not immediately respond to Huddle’s requests for an interview.
Trip Ninja says it is actively hiring as it ramps up operations.
Trevor Nichols is the associate editor of Huddle, based in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].