Travel systems provider Carlson Wagonlit (CWT) has just announced the acquisition of the mobile travel technology supplier WorldMate for an undisclosed sum, thought to be in the region of $20 million.
Those who haven’t heard of WorldMate will be surprised to learn that the company has actually been around for 12 years now, since its launch back in June 2000 by founder Nadav Gur, under the MobiMate brand. Essentially, WorldMate is a business travel and itinerary management app, available for Android, Apple and Blackberry devices. In addition, it also powers Blackberry’s native Travel app.
WorldMate claims that its mobile app is used by more than 10 million travelers around the world, helping them to organize their itineraries, book hotels, find car rentals and derive other real-time information about the destinations they travel to.
CWT says that it plans to work alongside WorldMate to integrate their two services, enhancing the existing tools on its own platform, CWT To Go. Currently, their app offers services such as mobile check-in, itineraries, flight alerts, gate changes, maps, directions and information on hotels and restaurants. Additional new services they hope to launch soon include airport parking, restaurant and hotel bookings, ground transportation and special airline promos such as in-flight Wi-Fi.
According to CWT President Douglas Anderson, the acquisition underlines the company’s commitment to providing the best mobile solutions:
“Injecting WorldMate’s proven mobile expertise into our existing range of products will bring additional services and functionalities to our clients and their travellers.”