KIWI.COM

Oliver Dlouhy was a Czech entrepreneur who loved to travel cheaply. In 2012, he founded Skypicker (later renamed Kiwi.com) in Brno, Czech Republic.

The original insight was simple: traditional flight search engines only show routes that airlines sell as a single ticket. But what if you combined separate tickets from different airlines to create cheaper routes?

Dlouhy built an algorithm that searched across every airline independently and assembled custom itineraries that no single airline or alliance would ever offer. Want to fly from Berlin to Buenos Aires?

Kiwi might combine a Ryanair flight to Madrid, a TAP flight to Lisbon, and a LATAM flight to Buenos Aires, all cheaper than any direct or traditional connection.

Kiwi.com is a virtual interlining platform. It earns money from booking fees and the margin between what it charges customers and what it pays airlines.

It also sells ancillary products like travel insurance, baggage protection, and its proprietary Kiwi.com Guarantee, which protects passengers if they miss a connection due to delays.

The Kiwi.com Guarantee is the killer feature. Because the airline segments are booked separately, the airlines have no obligation to help if you miss a connection.

Kiwi.com's insurance product covers rebooking costs, making the service viable for risk-averse travelers.

The main product is the flight search and booking engine, which finds virtual interlining routes across thousands of airlines. The Kiwi.com Guarantee protects customers when connections fail.

Tequila is the B2B API that lets other companies use Kiwi.com's algorithm. It powers travel search on hundreds of partner websites.

The mobile app handles booking, check-in, boarding passes, and trip management in one place.

Kiwi.com grew through SEO and partnerships. The company became one of the largest affiliates of Skyscanner and other metasearch engines, feeding them cheap itineraries that no competitor could match.

The company also built a B2B product called Tequila, which allows other travel companies to integrate Kiwi.com's virtual interlining engine into their own platforms. This turned competitors into customers.

Word of mouth from budget travelers was massive. When you save $300 on a flight, you tell people.

Virtual interlining is risky for passengers. If one leg is delayed, the entire itinerary can collapse.

Kiwi.com's Guarantee product covers this, but the claims cost real money. During COVID, when flights were mass-cancelled, Kiwi.com faced an avalanche of refund claims.

Airlines have been hostile to the model. Some carriers don't want their tickets bundled with competitors' flights and have tried to prevent Kiwi.com from accessing their inventory.

Internal leadership changes have been messy. Dlouhy stepped down as CEO, returned, and stepped down again.

The company has gone through multiple management transitions.

Kiwi.com raised about $150 million total. Key investors include General Atlantic, which led a major investment round.

The company has been profitable in some periods, unusual for a travel tech startup. Oliver Dlouhy and early employees own significant stakes.