Rich Barton Travel Startup Funded

New Travelco, a stealthy Seattle startup co-founded by Rich Barton and Greg Slyngstad, has raised $9.8 million in equity financing, according to a regulatory filing. The investors were not disclosed, but Brad Silverberg of Ignition Partners and Joel Cutler of General Catalyst Partners are also listed on the form as directors of the company. Barton is the CEO of Zillow, founder of Expedia, and a venture partner with Benchmark Capital; Slyngstad is a former Expedia exec, co-founder of VacationSpot, and board director of Kayak and Roost. Sunil Shah, listed on the SEC form as an executive officer, is the former vice president of engineering at Expedia. Simon Breakwell and Bethany Douglas are also on the New Travelco team. More details have been reported at Tnooz and TechFlash.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.