Kiwi.com

Kiwi.com (previously known as skypicker.com) is a Czech online travel tech company founded by Oliver Dlouhý and Jozef Képesi in 2012. Through its online portal Kiwi.com provides a fare aggregator, metasearch engine and booking for airline tickets and ground transportation. Its ticket search features Kiwi.com’s "virtual interlining" concept – itineraries combined from over 750 carriers, including many that do not usually cooperate in online bookings.[2] The booking service also features the industry-leading Kiwi.com Guarantee, which protects customers from missed connections caused by delay, schedule change, or cancellation.[3] Today, the company handles more than 100 million searches every day and sells an average of 33,000 seats per day. Kiwi.com currently employs over 2,600 people. In November 2019, the company announced its vision to become the world’s first Virtual Global Supercarrier (VGS).[4]

Kiwi.com
Formerly
SkyPicker.com
IndustryOnline travel agency
Founded2012
FounderOliver Dlouhý
HeadquartersBrno, Czech Republic
Revenue18,222,686,000 Czech koruna (2017) 
206,031,000 Czech koruna (2017) 
77,996,000 Czech koruna (2017) 
Total assets844,227,000 Czech koruna (31 December 2017) 
OwnerGeneral Atlantic (53.5 %)[1]
Oliver Dlouhý (22.4 %)[1]
Number of employees
2,600 (2020) 
Websitewww.kiwi.com

Background

The online portal skypicker.com was created in 2011. The company was founded in Brno by Oliver Dlouhý and Jozef Képesi. In 2016 the company acquired the domain name Kiwi.com for $800,000 and rebranded itself as Kiwi.com. Jiří Hlavenka was one of its first investors.[5] In 2017, Kiwi.com acquired a stake in Jaroslav Kokolus.[6]

As of June 2019, Kiwi.com’s main shareholder is General Atlantic.[7] Kiwi.com founders Oliver Dlouhý and Jozef Képesi remain as major shareholders and continue to run the company.[8] Other shareholders are Touzimsky Airlines and Luboš Charčenko.[9]

Services

Kiwi.com helps travellers get from any A to any B in the world. Its Virtual Interlining concept allows passengers to combine air and ground transportation from a range of carriers who do not normally cooperate with each other, in so doing facilitating billions of route combinations. In 2018 Kiwi.com launched NOMAD, a special multi-city travel search tool, and Tequila, a dedicated B2B platform.[10]

Along with its headquarters in Brno, Kiwi.com has offices in Barcelona and Prague. The company has outsourced partners in Belgrade (Serbia), Bratislava (Slovakia), Dalian (China), Kyiv (Ukraine), Manila (the Philippines), Split and Zagreb (Croatia), Pune, Nashik and Indore (India), Tunisia, Miami (USA), Bangkok (Thailand), Beijing, Foshan (China), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Bogotá (Colombia).[11]

The company is presently one of the five biggest online air ticket sellers in Europe, with an annual turnover of approximately 1.1 billion euros in 2018.[12]

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References
  1. Company register at or.justice.cz, company ID 29352886, Kiwi.com s.r.o., Netherlands-registered General Atlantic PH11 B.V. owns 53.5 %, accessed 2019-10-10
  2. "Kiwi.com in talks to raise funds for next leg of travel". Reuters. 23 May 2017 – via Reuters.
  3. "Kiwi.com | Guarantee". Kiwi.com (in Czech). Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  4. "How Kiwi.com is becoming the first virtual global supercarrier | PhocusWire". www.phocuswire.com. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  5. "Inside Interview: Behind the $800,000 Purchase of Kiwi.com". NamePros.
  6. Beránek, Jan. "HN: Brněnské Kiwi.com brzy přivítá nového investora". Lupa.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  7. Fox, Linda. "Kiwi.com takes big investment as General Atlantic becomes majority owner". PhocusWire. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  8. "Hotovo. Kiwi.com patří americkému fondu, Dlouhý zůstává". Forbes. 3 June 2019.
  9. "Veřejný rejstřík a Sbírka listin - Ministerstvo spravedlnosti České republiky". or.justice.cz. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  10. "Kiwi.com launches fully integrated booking tool for Tequila users". partners.kiwi.com. 2019-10-02. Retrieved 2020-02-27.
  11. "Czech online travel agency Kiwi.com readies expansion push". Reuters. 21 April 2017 – via Reuters.
  12. "Hádky kvůli prodeji Kiwi skončily, dospěl jsem, říká zakladatel Dlouhý a zahájil expanzi do Číny". Hospodářské Noviny.
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