Wanderu (company)

Wanderu is a ground travel metasearch engine and fare aggregator that operates throughout North America and Europe. It partners with bus and train operators to provide a one-stop search and booking platform through its website and mobile app. Wanderu is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 2012 by CEO Polina Raygorodskaya and COO Igor Bratnikov.

Wanderu was founded in 2012 by Polina Raygorodskaya and Igor Bratnikov. At the time when the idea for Wanderu was conceived, Raygorodskaya and Bratnikov were part of GreenXC, a nationwide campaign intended to raise awareness for national parks and forests throughout the United States. Aiming to promote sustainable forms of transportation, the group chose ride-shares as their main form of travel hitting a snag when one of their ride-shares cancelled and they had to find a bus to get to their next destination. Since no direct bus served the route, they had no way of finding which buses could get them where they needed to go or even find the closest station to where they were. Realizing the void in the market, they set out to build Wanderu.

In May 2013, Wanderu launched a private beta version of Wanderu. In August 2013, the company raised $2.45 million in a seed round of funding from a group of investors, including Alta Ventures Mexico, Wasabi Ventures, Drummond Road Capital, former Greyhound CEO Craig Lentzsch, Jeffrey Clarke, Bill Kaplan, Semyon Dukach, and Oliver Thylmann.

On August 12, 2013, Wanderu.com was officially launched to the public, covering bus and train travel within the Northeast.

In May 2014, Wanderu announced a partnership with Greyhound, the largest bus travel provider in the United States. As a result, Wanderu acquired nationwide coverage.

In November 2014, Wanderu completed a Series A round of funding, raising $5.6 million. The round featured 10 investors, including Alta Ventures Mexico, 500 Startups, Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners, Compound, Drummond Road Capital, Marc Bell Ventures, Klingenstein, Fields & Co, Craig Lentzsch, Brad Feld, and Kiril Bensonoff.