Predictive Airfare Technology Company Gets $7m Funding
SEATLLE, WA, July 29, 2005. Seattle based Hamlet Inc. announced a new name, Farecast, and $7 million in a second round of funding led by Greylock Partners. The online travel company founded by Oren Etzioni, a University of Washington computer science professor, has as its CEO, Hugh Crean, a former vice president at National Leisure Group and Priceline.com.
With a total of $8.5 million funding now, the company plans to use the new money for product development and recruiting.
While the company declined to discuss details of Farecast's online consumer travel plans, in an interview last fall with Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Etzioni said the company was developing a technology that allowed people to predict prices of airline tickets from various carriers (i.e. predicting and outsmarting airline yield management systems). The technology, he said, could help someone decide when to buy tickets in order to get the best price.
Critics have questioned whether that is actually possible. But Etzioni, who sits on the company's board, told the paper last year that it is "quite predictable."Farecast plans to unveil the consumer-oriented service in the next three to six months.
Other new executives at Farecast include vice president of engineering Jay Bartot, who previously worked at Seattle area startups Sightward and Netbot and former Alaska Airlines executives Mike Fridgen and Dave Pelter.
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