LONDON –Time Out Group, the trusted global platform that inspires and enables people to experience the best of the city, has acquired HallStreet, an award-winning geo-mapping startup, for an undisclosed sum.
Spanish-based startup HallStreet has revolutionised the global travel and leisure market with an interactive events and travel planner based on maps. Time Out’s investment in this technology, which combines meta-search with interactive ecommerce, reflects the evolution of its business as a platform for discovery and enablement, making it easier for users to book the best experiences in the city.
Following the acquisition, the two co-founders of HallStreet, Alfredo Ouro Villaraviz CEO and Antonio Rodríguez de la Torre CTO, have relocated from their offices in Barcelona and San Francisco to Time Out’s global headquarters in London, as Time Out employees.
Alfredo Ouro Villaraviz has been appointed Time Out’s Senior Vice President of Product (reporting to the CEO Noel Penzer) and Antonio Rodríguez de la Torre has been appointed Director, Technology – Travel at Time Out (reporting to the SVP, Engineering Jim Beattie). HallStreet’s engineering workforce will continue to work from Barcelona as Time Out employees.
Julio Bruno, Executive Chairman at Time Out Group, commented, “We’ve been looking at technology startups that further enable our vision for the future of travel and leisure distribution. The HallStreet platform has reinvented the way people plan leisure activities, using dynamic maps in a simple, end-to-end and stress-free experience. Their talented team of engineers will become an important piece of the vision to help consumers ‘Discover, Book, Share’, as Time Out continues its development as a leading global marketplace in the entertainment and hospitality space.”
“We’re proud to be joining a trusted global brand like Time Out, a brand whose vision we share,” says Alfredo Ouro, CEO & Co-Founder at HallStreet. “Our technology gives its users a bird’s eye view of the city, linking local restaurants, bars, hotels and things to do; enabling its users to book them easily through state of the art technology. By combining the unique and dynamic content that Time Out delivers on a daily basis with our near-me booking capabilities, we can take users from inspiration to purchase, making it even easier to experience the best of the city.”
