Rail search and booking technologies firm Silver Rail has acquired Linkon, a similar company operating in Sweden.
Linkon powers the Swedish rail market with solutions ranging from inventory hosting to mobile ticketing - 85 per cent of all rail tickets in the Swedish market are currently delivered via mobile.
Silver Rail is acquiring 75 per cent of the business with Swedish national rail carrier SJ retaining 25 per cent. There has been no announcement on the price of the deal.
“Linkon is a great fit for us,” explained Aaron Gowell, SilverRail’s co-founder and CEO. “Our global rail search and transaction platform is revolutionary for the industry, but our ability to innovate is often constrained by the limitations of the underlying rail operator systems.
“Linkon brings us direct access to one of the most forward-looking rail markets in the world. As a combined force, we’ll be able to deliver a world class customer-centric ecommerce experience for global rail travel.”
Silver Rail was set up in 2009 with the aim to aggregate global rail content into a single, unified system through direct supplier connections. The firm consolidates content across multiple rail carrier systems, and creates a global marketplace for online booking sites and travel agents using its distribution platform, Silvercore.
It currently operates in North America and Europe but, with a recent investment of US$40 million, it’s looking to move into Asia, with the goal of having all major global rail carriers integrated over the next few years.
Gowell added: “There has never been more growth or investment in global rail, but it is still extremely difficult to search for and book rail travel. Until it is as simple and easy to book a rail trip as it is to book a flight, the rail industry will not realise its full potential.
“Combining Linkon’s expertise from the rail operators’ perspective with our own strong track-record working in a global market place makes SilverRail extremely well placed to solve this challenge.”
Silver Rail said it will retain the full Linkon team and offices in Stockholm and Norrkoping, Sweden. The acquisition means Silver Rail is now a 200 strong engineering company with offices in London, Boston, Brisbane, Stockholm and Norrkoping.