August 2021

Russia's Travel Resilience Underscored by Startup Aviasales' $43 Million Funding

Russia has an unpredictable business environment, and many of its households face income pressures. But the country should see a long-term shift from offline to online booking of travel, and that could be a tailwind for Aviasales and its peers.
Russia has seen its domestic travel recover faster than most other countries in the pandemic. That reality is highlighted by news on Wednesday that private equity firm Elbrus Capital and venture firm iTech Capital will invest $43 million in Aviasales, a Moscow-based travel price comparison search site that has been focused on Russian-speaking travelers. The fundraising is one of the largest in the Eastern European travel tech scene since the crisis began.

The fundraising comes against a backdrop of strong Russian performance in Skift Research's Travel Tracker, which provides a real-time measure of the performance of the travel industry in 22 countries using several metrics. Russia has consistently led most countries month by month in the Skift Recovery Index, and in June notched a 76 out of 100 score, which was well above the 64 point average for countries tracked.


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