QUT Bluebox has joined corporates Holland Insurance and Seven West Media in the second funding round for over-60s package holiday portal Starts at 60.
Australia-based package holiday vendor Starts at 60 has obtained A$2.7m ($1.9m) in a funding round involving QUT Bluebox, the innovation and knowledge transfer subsidiary of Queensland University of Technology, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The deal also featured insurance firm Holland Insurance, mass media publisher Seven West Media and state-owned vehicle Queensland Business Development Fund, in addition to unnamed private investors.
Founded in 2013, Starts at 60 runs a vacation website called Travel at 60 featuring package holidays catered to baby boomers.
The funding will enable Starts at 60 to extend its operations, which currently include a marketplace for brokering trips, a travel-packaging team and a full-service contact centre based in Brisbane, Queensland.
Seven West Media had supplied the business with an undisclosed sum in February 2016, in exchange for a 33% stake at the time of transaction.
Rebecca Wilson, founder of Starts at 60, said: “We have very big ambitions here, this is 80% of leisure travel spend in the country.
“There is very little direct curation for this demographic, retirees have more time and more ability to take a holiday next week. We already have a successful media operation and that provides a logical place where people are already talking to each other about travel.”
