Blink Booking

Blink Booking was a mobile-first platform specializing in last-minute, same-day hotel bookings across Europe. Founded in Madrid, Spain, in 2011 by Rebeca Minguela and Miguel Ortega Rodriguez, the company aimed to provide curated hotel options at affordable prices for spontaneous travelers.

Rebeca Minguela, the driving force and CEO, brought a formidable background to the venture, with an MBA from Harvard Business School and experience at Boston Consulting Group and Bain Capital Private Equity. Her engineering background, coupled with her business acumen, was instrumental in steering the company's rapid growth. The startup was conceived as the first venture of a platform Minguela envisioned to foster entrepreneurship in Spain. She took on the full-time CEO role in March 2012 to manage the company's swift expansion and navigate early co-founder challenges.

The business operated on a commission-based model, partnering with hotels to aggregate their last-minute unsold inventory. The service was delivered through a user-friendly mobile application available for iOS and Android, which at its peak had over 800,000 downloads and featured more than 2,000 hotel partners in eight European countries. The app, available in six languages, was praised for its ease of use and catered to on-the-go travelers. The company's value proposition was offering a curated selection of unique hotels rather than an exhaustive list, focusing on quality and convenience.

Blink Booking successfully raised $2.5 million in a Series A funding round in May 2012 from investors including Ventech, Uncork Capital (formerly SoftTech VC), 500 Global, and Kibo Ventures. This investment fueled its expansion across Europe. Just over two years after its launch, in September 2013, Groupon acquired Blink Booking for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its travel division, Groupon Getaways. Following the acquisition, the app was rebranded as "Blink by Groupon" and continued to operate separately for a time, with Minguela joining Groupon to lead product and operations before eventually founding her next venture, Clarity AI.

Keywords: last-minute hotel booking, mobile travel app, European travel market, hotel inventory aggregation, same-day hotel deals, Rebeca Minguela, Groupon acquisition, travel tech, online travel agency, Madrid startup, Ventech, Kibo Ventures, Uncork Capital, hotel booking platform, spontaneous travel, curated hotels, mobile commerce, travel deals, hospitality tech, startup acquisition, accommodation booking, travel e-commerce