SilverRail Technologies Named Travel Industry’s Top Innovator, Transforming Global Rail Travel Distribution

Rail travel technology platform outshines 33 of the industry’s best innovations, Wins Travel Innovation Summit at PhoCusWright 2010

London, England, December 14, 2010… SilverRail Technologies, the developer of the first integrated global distribution system for Rail was named the “PhoCusWright Travel Innovation Summit Winner” at the travel research industry authority’s annual Travel Innovation Summit. Chosen by top travel industry experts and real‐time audience voting, SilverRail earned the prestigious honour for the most “game changing” innovation in travel by solving one of the last remaining industry challenges‐ simplifying the rail distribution process by making it easy to connect and sell rail products and services.

Dedicated solely to passenger rail distribution technology, SilverRail has taken a cue from airline search and technology companies such as ITA Software that have revolutionized air search‐ and has aggregated multiple stand‐alone rail lines into a single API that allows for dynamic search and booking. SilverRail’s product, SilverCore, is a sophisticated b2b ecommerce platform which opens rail to all global travel distribution channels. The product can be seen on SilverRail’s consumer site, Quno.com, which is SilverRail’s “test bed” for new functionality and pushing the envelope of what’s possible in rail.

SilverRail was founded by industry veterans Aaron Gowell, who developed travel technology and distribution behemoth, National Leisure Group (NLG), a $1 Billion ecommerce leader in vacations & cruise, and Will Phillipson, former VP Product Strategy and technical lead at ITA Software and genius behind NLG’s dynamic packaging engine powering more than 2,000 suppliers. The company is backed by top‐tier investors with deep experience in travel technology (Sutter Hill Ventures, Grandbanks Capital, Accel Partners, Brook Venture Partners, and PAR Capital) and overseen by a Board of experienced travel leaders such as Cheryl Rosner and Brad Gerstner.

With the global explosion of high‐speed rail travel fueled by deregulation and annual investment of $200B, and a 4x increase in high‐speed track over the next 15 years, SilverRail addresses an underserved and missing link for corporate and leisure travel sellers offline and online. Traditional GDS products have not satisfied the need for a simple integrated rail solution that can be easily incorporated within air‐rail search or dynamic packaging technologies.

“Rail has become the new critical element in travel distribution given high speed European rail links to all major cities, combined with the increased consumer frustration with air as evidenced in the large market share shift from air to rail,” said SilverRail CEO, Aaron Gowell. “Our mission is to make it easy for global suppliers and sellers to easily connect, and to reduce the complexity of shopping and booking rail for the consumer. We are very proud of being recognized by our travel industry peers at the PhoCusWright conference as the most innovative travel technology solution from among a truly stellar group of companies,” continued Gowell. Terry Jones, founder of Travelocity and one of the Travel Innovation Summit judges said, “It’s good to see real innovation occurring in the rail space. SilverRail is solving the challenge of connecting global rail suppliers and distributors in a seamless way.”

About Brook Venture Partners
Brook Venture Partners provides expansion stage capital through Brook Venture Fund I, Brook Venture Fund II and other co-investment funds to Information Technology and Medical Technology companies located in the Northeastern United States. The firm focuses on investments of $5-$10 million and specializes in both financing and providing the strategic and planning support necessary to rapidly scale and accelerate sales and marketing activities. Brook is headquartered outside Boston in Wakefield, MA. For more information, call 781-295-4000 or visit www.brookventure.com.

About SilverRail
Founded in 2009, SilverRail connects the world of rail by building best‐in‐class technical solutions that help railways and travel distributors easily connect with each other. SilverRail provides the underlying technology platform that enables the consolidation of global rail into a single system, removing the complexity of selling rail, irrespective of the operators, geographies and currencies. Co‐founders Aaron Gowell (CEO) and Will Phillipson (EVP Product Strategy) are travel ecommerce experts whose history goes back to the founding days of online travel. The team previously worked together to found and build one of the largest travel technology and distribution companies in the U.S.: National Leisure Group (NLG), a $1 Billion ecommerce leader in vacation and cruise travel.

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