Wanderu (company)

Wanderu is a ground travel meta-search website that searches Amtrak, Greyhound, Megabus and other bus and train operators in North America for the lowest fare. The company is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It was co-founded by CEO Polina Raygorodskaya and COO Igor A Bratnikov in 2012.^[1]

Co-founders

Polina Raygorodskaya, CEO, used to be a highly acclaimed model. Raygorodskaya earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Babson College. She has been recognized by national media outlets including Business Week, the Fox Business Channel and LegalZoom. In 2007 Business Week named her as one of the “Best 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25”.^[2] Igor A Bratnikov, COO, has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from McGill University and a law degree from Boston University School of Law.^[3] Former CTO & co-founder Eddy Wong was Chief Architect at Open Sesame which was acquired by Allaire (Adobe). Wong has over 15 years of experience as a software architect and is a local leader in Big Data, NoSQL and personalization.^[4]

In addition to its co-founders, Wanderu Board of Directors includes former CEO of Greyhound - Craig Lentzsch, AVM’s partner - Rogelio De los Santos,^[5] and Metamorphic Ventures partner - Marc Michel.

History

The idea for Wanderu came to Raygorodskaya and Bratnikov while they were on a cross-country campaign to raise awareness for National Parks and Forests called GreenXC.^[6] Aiming to promote sustainable forms of transportation, the group chose ride-shares as their main form of travel. Along the way in Virginia, their ride-share cancelled and they "tried desperately to find a bus to get to their next destination".^[7] Since no direct bus served the route, they had no way to find which buses could get them there or even find the closest station to where they were. Realizing the void in the market, they set out to build Wanderu.^[8]

Wanderu raised $2.45 million in funding in August 2013. Investors included strategic travel industry insiders including a former CEO of Greyhound, the Chairman of Orbitz, the Chairman of Her Campus, and a number of investors from Drummond Road Capital, among others. The funding round was led by Alta Ventures.^[9]

Following the original seed round, Wanderu has since raised $5.6 million Series A round led by Metamorphic Ventures. Allstar investors like Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners, 500 Startups, John Balen were part of the round.^[10]

Product

Wanderu^[11] lets consumers enter their starting and ending destination addresses or point of interest, and then shows them a list of possible itineraries across different bus and train lines. The search integrates local public transit, walking and biking directions to and from the bus or train pick-up and drop-off locations. In addition, the search can perform live routing to combine two or more travel options to find the fastest or cheapest trips not served by any direct route. Clicking on a search result directs the consumer to the bus or train provider’s booking page, similar to airline travel aggregators like Kayak.com.^[12]

Wanderu partners directly with bus and train carriers. It integrates fully with a carriers' system similar to the way Amadeus and ITA connect with airlines and hotels. Wanderu also standardizes schedule ground travel data throughout North America including station and carrier codes.^[13]

The site began in a private beta test in the Northeast U.S. After 20,000 people signed up for the private beta, Wanderu was released to the public on August 12, 2013.^[14] In February 2015, Wanderu launched its mobile app which was featured as a best app for the month in the Apple App Store (iOS) and selected as favorite iPhone app by Time magazine.^[15]

Since its inception, Wanderu has expanded beyond its Northeastern roots and now serves the majority of North America. This growth was made possible in part by their partnership with Greyhound, America's largest intercity bus company.^[16] The company aims to fully expand into Mexico and Canada. Wanderu serves Canada through the company's recent partnership with VIA Rail Canada, Canada's leading train travel provider.^[17] Wanderu's partnership with Turimex Internacional, a busing company that serves the Southwest U.S. and Mexico, initiated the company's ongoing expansion into Mexico.^[18]

Recognition

Wanderu was a finalist of MassChallenge in the summer of 2012^[19] and an original member of PayPal's Start Tank in Boston.^[20]

Wanderu was the winner of the 2013 South by Southwest Interactive Accelerator Award.^[21] South by Southwest is one of the largest music, movie and interactive technology festival in the country; each year the top companies and products in each field compete for the SXSW awards. Some of the past winners in the category are big companies such as Hipmunk and Siri.^[22]

Wanderu is a member of the American Bus Association.

Wanderu was a top 3 finalist and, according to his blog, Richard Branson's personal favorite^[23] in the Extreme Tech Challenge at CES 2015 and then later on Necker Island (British Virgin Islands).

In 2016, Wanderu's co-founders were featured in →Forbes magazine's acclaimed 30 Under 30 list in the Consumer Tech category due to the success of Wanderu.^[24]

References

External links

• Corporate website