Global technology investor Amadeus Capital Partners has invested $40 million into Travelstart, a South Africa-based online travel agency (OTA).

With the new funding comes a strategic partnership with Africa's largest mobile telecommunications provider MTN which has a subscriber base of more than 230 million. The funding will be used for Travelstart’s expansion and to solidify the company’s position as the biggest OTA player on that continent.

“In the three short years since Travelstart launched commercial operations in Egypt we’ve worked hard to become the first choice for Egyptian travellers,” said Ahmed Saad, regional manager for Travelstart Egypt. “We are proud to have been awarded ‘Best Online Travel Agency’ two years running by Amadeus Egypt. In 2015, we launched Travelstart’s Arabic language portal, bringing our travel services to an even broader segment of the Egyptian market.”

Africa is considered the last frontier in online travel. In most developed countries Internet and mobile travel purchases now represent the lion’s share of the online travel market while in Africa web-based travel companies share less than 5 per cent of the entire market.

“Travelstart celebrates 10 years in Africa this year,” said Travelstart CEO Stephan Ekbergh, “In that time our in-house team has built a robust platform to serve consumers and significantly lower fares for all travellers. We take all the complexities out of travel for both travellers and suppliers and solve real problems that only exist in the most diverse of markets.”

The investment is the largest of its kind on the African continent in Turkey and the Middle East, “Africa alone is a $50 billion travel market growing between 3 per cent and 5 per cent annually. The investment from Amadeus Capital and the MTN partnership is a fantastic fit for our company as we share the same ideology and long term commitment,” said Ekbergh. – TradeArabia News Service