Skift publishes news and produces data products focused on the travel industry, positioning itself as a business-information startup where media and data go hand-in-hand. Launched in July 2012 by Rafat Ali and Jason Clampet, the site has grown quickly and says it will have more than half a million unique users this month, with 25% of traffic from mobile and roughly 10% from Twitter. Skift has begun producing research (its first report was published in January) and launched SkiftSocial in February to offer social media data for travel brands. The company plans to start selling subscription data products next month and intends to build out a flagship conference. Skift will use new funding to double headcount from five to ten and to move out of a co-working space into an office. Its readership is described as executives and managers at leading travel brands such as Expedia, Priceline, JetBlue, and Starwood. Skift combines original reporting, aggregation, curation and licensed content with data tools and services aimed at the travel industry and business travelers. The founders position it as a new breed of media company designed to appeal to insiders and a broad consumer base. Its content mix includes news, insight, data and services, and the team plans to use data strategically to scale. The business model is multi-pronged, combining advertising, freemium and premium subscription models depending on user type. The company is building a data warehouse of publicly available travel industry information and plans to build services and a consumer product over the coming year. Skift has begun hiring editorial staff, developers, and data and product heads to execute on its product and growth plans.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

May 2013