Rome2rio is an Australian online multimodal transport journey planner offering traveling services globally. The company is based in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metr ...

. It is owned by the German online travel comparison and booking website

Omio GoEuro Travel GmbH, doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business ...

History

Rome2rio was founded by Bernhard Tschirren and Dr. Michael Cameron, two ex-

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

software engineers. The site was born out of their frustrations with the lack of a fast, easy-to-use, and comprehensive multi-modal search engine with global coverage. The two co-founders began work on the product in September 2010 and won the Melbourne Azure Bizspark Camp Award in February 2011. The beta version of Rome2rio was launched on 7 April 2011. Rod Cuthbert, founder of Viator, became CEO in May 2012 as the company raised $450,000. Rome2rio won the People's Choice Award at Phocuswright 2012, the TRAVELtech Global Collect Website of the Year in 2013, the Data Specialist Award at the 2015 WITovation Awards and the Best Metasearch Award at the 2016 Travolution Awards. The company raised $2.8 million in funding including a 2014 grant of $1.2 million from Commercialization Australia. In July 2015, it announced that support for its white label product would cease in January 2016, citing pressure on development resources brought on by rapid growth in its consumer business. The company initially offered both

white-label product A white-label product is a product or service produced by one company (the producer) that other companies (the marketers) rebrand to make it appear as if they had made it. The name derives from the image of a white label on the packaging that ...

s and

application programming interface An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

options for partners wishing to integrate its multi-modal results into web sites and mobile apps. In 2016, the company added direct booking options. In April 2017, Rod Cuthbert became Executive Chairman, Michael Cameron became CEO and Bernie Tschirren was made Chief Architect. Kirsteene Phelan became COO. In November 2017, Rome2rio moved to a new headquarters in Richmond, Melbourne's digital quarter. In July 2019, Craig Penfold joins the company as Chief Technology Officer. In October 2019, Rome2rio was acquired by

, the Berlin-based travel booking platform. In January 2020, Yeswanth Munnangi (Yesh) took over as CEO of Rome2rio, and Michael Cameron joined the board of directors.

References

{{Travel ticket search engines 2019 mergers and acquisitions Australian travel websites Cartography Companies based in Melbourne Intermodal transport Internet properties established in 2011 2011 establishments in Australia Internet search engines Public transport information systems Route planning websites Travel ticket search engines International multimodal travel search engines