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UK: Skyscanner’s $1.7 billion sale to China’s Ctrip is now complete

By  |  December 11, 2016

Scottish travel startup Skyscanner is now officially owned by Chinese online travel giant Ctrip, as the £1.4 billion acquisition has been finalized.

The deal was first announced on November 26, and given that it had already been approved by both companies’ directors, it was really just waiting on “customary closing conditions.” But today marks a milestone in what has been a remarkable journey for a company that built a major global business from its HQ in Edinburgh, while taking on relatively little outside investment, for the most part.

Founded in 2003, Skyscanner is one of the world’s largest travel search engines by traffic. The company raised £128 million (USD$192 million) late last year, but for most of its history Skyscanner’s biggest investor was Scottish Equity Partners — which had plowed approximately $4 million into the company in 2007 — though Sequoia Capital followed up with an undisclosed amount in 2013, which reportedly valued Skyscanner at $800 million.

Full Content: Venture Beat

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