Two former Airbnb executives have joined Impala, a technology company which aims to power a new generation of travel companies.
Founded in 2017, Impala connects hotels to businesses that want to sell hotel rooms and create new guest experiences.
Impala says it takes away costly integrations and lengthy negotiation cycles for corporate travel companies, tour operators and travel startups, so companies can focus on guest experiences.
The company has hired Caroline Hudack as Chief Marketing Officer and Robin Clifford as VP of Global Supply.
The two senior hires have recently held leadership positions at Airbnb, where Hudack was Head of Marketing for EMEA and Clifford was Head of Supply for Northern Europe.
Hudack previously worked at Facebook, where she was one of the first Product Marketers in Menlo Park and then set up Facebook’s first consumer marketing team in Europe. Clifford formerly held senior roles at Nestorstay and Booking.com.
Impala is backed by Lakestar, Latitude, Kima Ventures and Stride.VC, the same investors who saw the huge potential in the now-giants and household names of Airbnb, Spotify, Trivago, Travelperk, Zoopla, Monzo, and Deliveroo.
“At Impala we’re looking to do things differently by building a new travel tech stack that removes the stagnation that’s stifling innovation,” said CEO Ben Stephenson.
“Caroline and Robin bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise about how to approach travel differently from their experience at Airbnb, which is one of the largest travel disruptors in the last 10 years.”
Hudack added: “I’m excited to join Impala at such an interesting time for the travel industry. Travel is going to look quite different to how it did before. I believe Impala will have a big role to play in opening up the travel industry to more innovation and also creating a fairer, more sustainable ecosystem.”
In March this year, Impala launched its self-serve hotels platform. The self-serve version of its platform enables businesses to automatically plug into Impala’s global network of partner hotels, including NH Hotels, Iberostar and Starhotels properties, and show availability, prices, upgrade options and more, all in real-time.
Clifford added: “Impala’s technology is changing the face of the hotel industry, for travelers and hoteliers alike. I believe that Impala has the potential to disrupt the entire travel sector for the better, and I could not be more excited to join the company to help fuel our growth.”