Hurb

Hurb (formerly Hotel Urbano) is the largest online travel agency based in Brazil. Founded in January, 2011 by brothers José Eduardo and João Ricardo Mendes, Hurb was valued at 2 billion reais or approximately US$500 million when Booking Holdings purchased a small percentage for US$60 million in 2015, although this investment was totally written off and sold at an undisclosed price in 2016. Its headquarters are in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
History.
The company was initially founded as a collective buying website in 2011. It was operated under this business model for only 5 months. Also in 2011, the two brothers repositioned the company in the market, and it then began operating as an online travel agency with focus on short-term off-season packages. In this new model, lodging rates are reduced in up to 40% compared to high-season rates.
In a few rounds of investment, American fund companies Insight Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management invested in the company. They are known to have invested in companies such as Facebook, Netflix and LinkedIn.
The company began marketing hotel accommodations and international travel packages. In 2013, it offered hotels and travel packages to 35,000 destinations in over 180 countries.
The company's Facebook page is the most popular tourism page in the world (with 12 million fans) and is the 4th most popular page in Brazil.
2014 to Present.
By the end of 2014, the company had formed a partnership with Rock in Rio and became the only Brazilian company to market travel packages to the two festival editions in 2015.
In the beginning of 2015, the company formed a partnership with RentalCars.com that allowed it to market car reservation and rental services in over 26 thousand destinations in 180 countries.
Thinking of the medium-term IPO, the company implemented an Administrative Council in 2015, made up of independent members. These members are: Derek Zissman, former director of the KPMG group in the UK; Stelleo Tolda, executive vice-president and operations director at Mercado Livre; Leonardo Rocha, a business executive who has worked at Telefônica, Ponto Frio and Camargo Corrêa. The Council also includes the participation of João Ricardo Mendes and José Eduardo Mendes, founders of the company, and Brad Twohig, managing partner, and Elodie Dupuy, vice-president of Insight Venture Partners, an investment fund company that has led three rounds of investments in the company.
Also in 2015, Booking Holdings invested US$60 million the company and gained a minority stake in the business. This partnership aimed to expand the company's operations, especially in Latin America, through the global network of more than 780 thousand lodging partners who benefit from Priceline.com.
However, in May 2016, Priceline declared that due to disappointing 2015 results, reduced forecasts, and the need for additional funding, it would write down 85% of its investment in HotelUrbano. In August 2016, the group announced having written down in full its investment.
Voltem.com.
In 2014, the company launched a website for vacation room rentals in Brazil called Voltem.com.
In 2015, the company made an investment contribution of R$5 million to improve the Voltem.com platform. As of November 2017, the site does not exist anymore.