Business Wire

Fora Raises $13.5 Million in Series A Funding Round Co-Led by Heartcore Capital and Forerunner

The Funds will Accelerate the Next Evolution of the Innovative Travel Agency’s Technology for Travel Advisors

NEW YORK--( BUSINESS WIRE )-- Fora , a tech-forward travel agency ushering in a new generation of entrepreneurs, announced $13.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Heartcore Capital and Forerunner. Fora will use the funding to accelerate the next evolution of its platform: an innovative client and booking management system – the first of its kind in the industry – exclusively for its community of travel advisors. The funding will also be used to boost marketing and business development, and build best-in-class training programs for its community of advisors.

Since launching in August 2021, Fora has redefined the concept of a travel agency, and given the notoriously antiquated industry a makeover as a result. Led by longtime travel professionals and successful repeat founders, Fora targets an emerging generation of entrepreneurs: these are the individuals who are passionate about travel but never once considered booking trips as an income stream. Enter Fora, which provides all the resources needed to launch a career as a travel agent.

Since its inception, Fora has experienced exponential growth and now boasts nearly 500 advisors around the world, with more than 30,000 people on the waitlist. 97 percent of Fora Advisors had never sold travel previously, proving that Fora was the linchpin in empowering people to transform their passion into a career.

“This funding milestone enables us to double down on our vision to become a leading travel agency, with a first-of-its-kind platform for advisors,” said Jake Peters, co-founder and chief product & technology officer at Fora. “Our goal is to make our advisors’ job as seamless as possible, with an accessible user experience and system that will grow with our advisors, but not be overwhelming.”

This integrated portal offers Fora Advisors, both new to the industry and experienced professionals, all the information they need to book travel at their fingertips. This includes an easy discovery tool for preferred partner perks, destination and resort overviews, secure credit card management, client management and much more. In addition, the portal offers a real-time update on commission payments.

Fora also offers tech-enabled marketing tools to ensure advisors can seamlessly drive demand to their network. A new and innovative marketing feature is the “magic blog,” a tool which allows Fora Advisors to customize and share travel content with the push of a button. With this feature, advisors can personalize articles written by Fora’s in-house creative team – including hotel roundups shaped by bookings data and industry experts – to include their own byline and calls-to-action to get in touch. Advisors also have access to branded email templates touting hotel exclusives and seasonal offers. Adding to the content marketing equation, Fora Advisors can set up a profile at foratravel.com and showcase their own trip itineraries, bio and areas of expertise. With this technology, advisors can skip the heavy lifting of content marketing and do what they do best: plan trips.

According to the U.S. Travel Association, travel spending hit a new pandemic high of $101 billion in May 2022. The American Society of Travel Advisors reports that nearly half of travelers (44 percent) estimate they are more likely to use a travel advisor when the pandemic is over. With travel advisors in more demand than ever, Fora is perfectly positioned to revolutionize the industry.

“Heartcore is excited to be underwriting Fora's exceptional growth in a strategic space in travel,” said Max Niederhofer, partner at Heartcore Capital. “The narrative of venture investment in tourism has been one of disintermediation and automation. But unforgettable experiences are best planned with the depth of insight and level of care that only a personalized, one-on-one booking experience can provide. We believe Fora is the ultimate career opportunity for a new generation of passionate travel entrepreneurs: a chance to build a thriving and flexible business offering phenomenal trips with all the perks of the traditional agency model.”

The team at Fora is dedicated to more than just building a tech-forward company. They’re focused on empowering people to earn money doing what they are passionate about.

“Originally, we wanted to create a new kind of travel agency so anyone who loves travel could join and earn income,” said Henley Vazquez, co-founder of Fora. “The funding not only helps speed up our plans to build our community of travel advisors, but it furthers our commitment to bring people together through travel. We are very excited for what the future holds and how this will continue to change the industry.”

To learn more about Fora, visit www.foratravel.com .

Fora is a tech-forward travel agency with a mission to empower anyone with a passion for travel to earn income by planning and booking trips. A one-stop shop to become a successful travel advisor, Fora offers its community of advisors ongoing training, access to a supplier hub, commission tracking and the fastest payments in the industry, content creation tools, marketing resources and more. Fora sits at the intersection of the desire for flexible, remote work and travelers’ desire to re-experience the world. The waitlist to become a Fora Advisor is currently 30k people, and growing. More at www.foratravel.com .

About Heartcore

Founded in 2007, Heartcore Capital is a leading European early-stage venture capital firm with over $700M in committed capital. With offices in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Paris, Heartcore backs exceptional founders building category-defining B2C and B2B2C technology companies from inception to Series A. Heartcore's portfolio includes companies like GetYourGuide, TravelPerk, Roadsurfer, and Tink (acquired by Visa in 2022 for $2.2 billion). More at https://heartcore.com/ .

About Forerunner

Forerunner is a VC firm focused on understanding the mindset of the modern consumer and identifying the companies poised to deliver what they need. Forerunner invests in companies across sectors—from fintech to marketplaces, creator platforms to commerce enablement tools—as they reimagine how, why, and with whom we transact. The firm’s investments include Chime, Faire, Glossier, Away, ŌURA, Curated, Ritual, The Farmer’s Dog, and Warby Parker, among others. For more information, visit forerunnerventures.com .

Jillian Thayer [email protected] 310.740.2324

fora travel crunchbase

Release Summary

Tech-Forward Travel Agency, Fora, Raises $13.5 Million in Series A Funding Round Co-Led by Heartcore Capital and Forerunner

Inside Fora, the startup igniting a possible renaissance for travel agents

Fora cofounders (from left) Jake Peters, Henley Vazquez, and Evan Frank.

Somewhere in between travel lockdowns during the first year of the pandemic and the current chaos plaguing airports around the world, a bevy of new travel startups launched with promises of a better experience.

The latest entry is Fora , self-described as a tech-forward travel agency that essentially serves as a hub for experienced travelers looking for a launchpad to run a side gig (or more) as a travel agent.

Since launching in August just one year ago, Fora now boasts nearly 500 travel advisers worldwide (97% of whom have never worked in the sector before), operating within its network, with more than 30,000 people on the wait list.

And this week, the New York–based company announced $13.5 million in Series A funding, which will help advance the development of the travel agency’s technology for advisers.

Fortune recently spoke with cofounders Henley Vazquez, Evan Frank, and Jake Peters, who shared more about what it‘s like to run a travel business right now.

The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Could you share a bit about your professional backgrounds before launching Fora?

Vazquez: Each of us are repeat founders who have worked in the travel industry for decades. I originally caught the travel bug in college when I took a gap year, and have been a travel adviser for more than 15 years. I was on the founding team at Indagare, which is where I learned all about being a travel adviser and working with hotels. Then, I founded Passported, a Virtuoso travel agency. 

My cofounder, Evan Frank, started in corporate finance, then venture capital, and has spent the last 10-plus years building new disrupters in the travel and hospitality space. He’s a three-time founder or CEO of travel and hospitality marketplace startups, including Onefinestay, which was bought by Accor Hotels. 

Jake Peters, Fora’s cofounder and chief product and technology officer, is our tech genius. He’s a self-taught programmer and tech entrepreneur with more than two decades in the industry. With his passions rooted in tech, data, and travel, Jake wanted to make dramatic shifts within the travel agency industry alongside Evan and I. 

The three of us make up a dynamic team, each with very different specialties and interests, which is what makes it work so well. We cofounded Fora in order to create a new type of travel agency that welcomes everyone with the interest or passion—the go-to person for travel tips in their networks—to sell travel in a way that was previously reserved for pro travel agents. Our mission is to build the next-generation brand in travel, empowering a network of travel entrepreneurs along the way.

What inspired the launch of Fora?

Frank: When we first started Fora, we actually looked at the real estate industry and drew some inspiration. Compass had just IPOed, and we read that there were 3 million real estate license holders in the U.S., the majority of whom were not full-timers. Yet, there were only 100,000 travel agents. We asked ourselves why there was such a disconnect, especially considering how fun a full-time career in travel could be, as I observed in my cofounder Henley. Having our kids in the same school, Henley and I were constantly surrounded by other moms and parents who were planning trips for their families all around the world, but they had no idea that they could be monetizing those bookings by being a travel adviser.

That said, traditional travel advisers had to hit a certain amount of sales in order to be successful and work in the industry, so there was never room to sell travel as a side gig. We wanted to change that and began brainstorming over the pandemic, when travel had come to a screeching halt. Henley and I both had the same idea: Travel is coming back and remote work isn’t disappearing, so why can’t more people do this job, and how can we build a more viable organization? Even though travel was on hold, we knew the current travel industry was dominated by big online booking sites and big agencies, but people craved human connection and experiences they’d receive with a traditional travel agency for when we’d start to travel again. 

There were also 1.5 million women who left the workforce due to the pandemic, and we knew these people would have the time and interest in a side hustle or new career. Plus, much of education and training was forced to move online due to the pandemic, and this created the first opportunity to train up a remote labor force at no real disadvantage to being based in an office. The creator economy and cohort-based courses also really exploded due to being stuck at home with a computer. 

From there, we decided we wanted to enable entrepreneurs to transform their passion for travel into revenue, and to do it by curating the most incredible experiences for travelers. By empowering the long tail of who could sell travel for a living and building tools to make the work easier and efficient, we created Fora that has the technology of an online booking site, but human touch like a traditional travel agency.

fora travel crunchbase

Being a travel agent as a career significantly changed as consumers were able to book travel themselves via the internet, causing a decline for the profession since the 1990s. Why do you think there might be a comeback now?

Vazquez: The market for travel agents is at an all-time high with all things COVID as it relates to cancellations, last-minute changes, and stress-free travel in the midst of a pandemic. It’s our job to stay on top of the current travel advisories, trends, and restrictions so you don’t have to worry about it. 

The internet is also uncurated and uncontrolled, with endless possibilities but no one to sort through the noise for you. That’s where our agents step in. Plus, they’re there to support when things go wrong. 

On top of that, travel advisers are able to set you up with perks and added benefits that you can’t get when booking with an online booking site. Because of their direct relationships with the property, people using travel advisers are more likely to get an upgrade, dining and spa credits, and added amenities. Plus, we’ll make sure the special occasions that you’re traveling for are celebrated because we’re in constant contact with the properties and their team. Think: wine in-room upon arrival, a romantic turndown, or a surprise treat for the kids. 

The travel industry is certainly rebounding, even as airports suffer from record delays, cancellations , losses of luggage , and meltdowns ( in some cases, literally ). But inflation and a looming recession have some people nervous about spending on travel. What do you think will be some of the top travel trends this fall and holiday season?

Vazquez: The looming recession hasn’t stopped travel from happening, but we do continue to see last-minute travel planning as the trend that won’t quit, and we suspect that has to do with confidence in spending. We recently saw one-third of a record week of bookings all with departure dates for the following week. If there’s uncertainty in the markets, what we’re seeing is a hesitation to plan much further into the future (rather than a hesitation to not travel at all).

That said, what’s unique is that everything is so much more expensive in travel right now, but people are still booking their dream trips regardless of the cost. After being stuck at home for two years, they are eager to see the world again. 

In terms of trends, there’s also less of a focus on action-packed itineraries. Fewer people are asking for tickets to the Louvre or museums; most don’t want to plan a back-to-back itinerary. Instead, they’re wanting to wander and explore the cities they’re in, eat great meals, and feel immersed in places they’ve missed. We’ve also seen a major rise in adventure and outdoors-focused travel. I lived in Costa Rica for part of the pandemic, driven in large part by the need to do things again and not be stuck indoors. From national parks to tropical rain forests, we’re seeing the same trend in trip planning—let’s get active!

In terms of airfare, now there are more travelers than there are seats available. For people who haven’t thought about your flights this holiday season, you have to get on it now, although we do know from our data that last-minute remains the name of the game. The big thing is that people are adjusting their behavior to the unpredictability of flights, building in buffer days or flying in earlier versus later to safeguard against delays and cancellations. We’ve all gotten pretty good at the “go with the flow” approach, even if we don’t like it. Working with a travel agent means that you have a friend in the industry who can help you navigate the ever-changing nature of travel right now.

fora travel crunchbase

How is the company funded? Is it self-funded or have you reached out to investors? What has the financing process been like?

Frank: In order to innovate in the travel agent industry—historically very fragmented with lots of small owner-operators, and as a result generally too low margin to build technology and many of the capabilities typically seen only at OTAs [online travel agencies]—we needed to raise capital early. Agents have been left behind in the online booking revolution in travel; we want to put the power back in their hands and build something that feels halfway between a traditional agency and an OTA. An OTA that’s powered by humans.

As a result, we’ve been VC-backed since early days. We closed a $5 million seed round in fall 2021 and just announced our Series A funding for $13.5 million that was co-led by Heartcore Capital and Forerunner. This Series A funding will be used to accelerate the next evolution of our platform: an innovative client and booking management system—the first of its kind in the industry—exclusively for our community of travel advisers.

We’re an experienced team with exits under our belts and diverse backgrounds—agency, travel supplier, building technology products—which has helped attract this equity capital.

Looking forward five years, how do you want to Fora to grow? What kind of services do you want to add in the future?

Peters: Travel advising can really be the best job in the world. However, in order for this to be true, and in order to welcome thousands of travel-passionate people into this industry, a lot needs to be rethought: from payments to marketing to enabling different ways of working to community—and to simplify the planning and booking process. 

We have grand visions and many ideas for things we can build; piecing our platform together thoughtfully is the work we are undertaking now. At the moment, our focus is laying foundations both from a product and underlying tech perspective, but also more importantly from a process perspective—how we build, how we listen to and support our advisers, and how we interact with the travel tech and supplier community at large.

And we’re doing this all with a laser focus on enabling our advisers to be productive and enjoy the work of selling travel and serving their clients. I enjoy looking ahead a few years and thinking about how we will have a product that weaves together all of the necessary components; this includes booking tools, client management tools, payments, supplier information, training, and community, and more into a single offering that is powerful and a joy to use.  

I know I speak for everyone on the team when I say that we’re very committed to growing Fora and getting it to a much larger scale than today. We want to bring new people into the industry and empower them to transform their passion for travel into a meaningful career, side hustle or full-time. We want to support travel advisers as best we can with technology and community. The travel agent industry has roughly 100,000 agents. Our mission at Fora is to bring in the next 100,000 agents, or more, with a more progressive approach to training, labor, and technology. We want to make being a Fora adviser the best job in the world.

This is an installment of   Startup Year One , a special series of interviews with founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation.

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For those who want to turn travel into dollars, Fora can help start your next career

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Travel is back, at least according to experts who say travel bookings for over the Thanksgiving holiday are showing to be even higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Anyone who loves travel or is that friend who always plans the best vacations, Fora has a tool for you. The company was co-founded by onefinestay’s Evan Frank, Virtuoso agency owner Henley Vazquez and entrepreneur Jake Peters, to redefine what we think of the travel agency and enable people who want to sell travel as a career, or in their spare time, a way to do it.

Frank and Vazquez had known each other for five years when the idea for Fora came up.

“We always talked about doing something together, but this past March, we connected again,” Vazquez said. “I was in Costa Rica and talking about opportunities for women sitting on sidelines due to the pandemic and looking for interesting work. Content creators are circulating around the travel world, and we saw a big opportunity for technology to modernize the industry.”

Travel agencies are a $100 billion market in the U.S. , but it is still largely one that works with fax machines and phone calls. Fora is one of the latest startups seeing venture capital attraction to push more of the travel industry into the digital age and tapping into the creator economy . Another is Thatch, which took in $3 million in August to enable travel creators to monetize their recommendations.

However, Fora has a unique approach compared to some of its competitors: It is actually teaching people to sell travel through training sessions, content authoring tools and negotiated rates at the world’s top hotels.

“A lot of companies sell content or expertise, but we saw a bigger opportunity to empower more people to sell travel,” Frank said. “The booking of travel without a system or knowledge is janky and hard. We are focused on tooling to help our advisors be successful themselves.”

Since its soft launch in August, Fora has already booked $2 million in travel, and today, the company announced $5 million in a seed round. It was led by Forerunner Ventures with participation from Heartcore Capital, Uncommon Capital and individual investors, including Katrina Lake, Gokul Rajaram, Ran Makavy and Ben Rubin.

The company decided to go after venture capital to help build out its technology more quickly. Fora plans to use the new investment to onboard new advisors, product development and go-to-market. Its advisor waitlist has grown to more than 2,000 people, and the company will also spend the time onboarding and training them over the next few months.

Meanwhile, Brian O’Malley, general partner at Forerunner Ventures, said that his firm was looking at the creator space and found that what will make Fora successful is having the advisor with a circle of friends and a passion for travel.

“In our eyes, that fits the entrepreneur next store versus the person on Instagram getting free stuff,” he added. “The cost of customer acquisition is skyrocketing, and Fora is coming in as a ‘Trojan horse’ by getting networks that already existed. It’s also a next-generation platform that is getting people back into the workforce.”

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Crunchbase News

Travel Startups Are Getting Billions In VC Funding Again As Vaccine Rollout Accelerates 

Illustration of hypodermic needle in the shape of an airplane.

Funding to venture-backed travel and tourism startups fell to a five-year low in 2020, a year defined by the COVID-19 pandemic and the stay-at-home mandates that came with it. But that trend may be turning around, if early funding data and investor enthusiasm are any indication.

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Funding to venture-backed startups in the travel and tourism sector amounted to around $4.8 billion across 629 deals in 2020, Crunchbase data shows. Both the dollar amount and deal count hit a five-year low. And that followed a record in 2019, when funding to travel and tourism startups in the past five years hit a record $10.8 billion.

So far this year, companies in the sector have raised about $3.4 billion across 173 deals, according to Crunchbase data. 

“It’s a really exciting time to be investing in the space,” said Kristi Choi , an investor at Plug and Play Ventures . “And we talk a lot about this because I really feel like travel is at an inflection point for a couple different reasons.”

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Companies that have survived the pandemic have learned how to stay resilient and have used the time to tailor their value proposition, Choi said, pointing to how travel startup Sherpa added travel restriction monitoring and guidelines on top of its visa application offerings. And with the crisis, new travel habits have emerged and evolved.

“I think history is a really good indicator,” Choi said. “We talk a lot about the financial crisis in 2008, and we’re seeing there are similar patterns with the pandemic.”

Choi noted that some of the best fintech companies were born during the financial crisis. Stripe and Square , for example, were founded around the time of the Great Recession. 

Travel and tourism has been one of the hardest-hit industries during the pandemic, as social distancing guidelines and travel restrictions have kept people at home. But that could mean the travel companies that survived the past year could emerge stronger.

“We’re firm believers that when crisis hits an industry, you can rebuild and invest,” Choi said, noting that she’s seeing the strongest pipeline in travel investments that they’ve had in a while.

Alternative accommodations, such as short-term rentals, and the tech that could make alternative accommodations a more attractive option, is one area Choi pointed to as promising. Another popular feature to pop up is travel companies that also have a fintech component to them, such as a “buy now, pay later” option.

There are already some signs that travel is picking back up and the industry is rebounding. Flight bookings and the number of travelers being screened by the Transportation Security Administration are up, according to Michael Coletta , manager of research and innovation at travel market research firm Phocuswright . 

Demand is outpacing supply for short-term rentals outside of major cities, he said. “People are definitely clamoring to get out the door and take trips, and I think investors see that and will be much less cautious putting money into the market this year,” Coletta said. “Because they really see the pent-up demand is starting to materialize.”

And for travel companies, they’ve begun to see some signs of investor interest as well. Companies in the travel and tourism space have raised $3.4 billion so far this year. Among the notable deals are Hopper ’s $170 million funding round, which was announced in March, and TravelPerk ’s $160 million round last month.

Business travel management platform TripActions also announced its first-ever acquisition last week, buying London-based corporate travel management company Reed & Mackay . While leisure travel is already returning, business travel is expected to rebound eventually as well, according to TripActions chief travel officer Daniel Finkel .

TripActions’ travel bookings have increased 30 percent month over month since the beginning of 2021, according to Finkel. TripActions is also seeing more corporate travel and an increase in the number of travelers per company, he said. 

“In terms of future bookings, 60 percent of business travelers book their travel within the month of travel — and that is in a normal year,” Finkel said in an email. “That said, we are seeing future bookings. The average lead time for booking travel has increased from a pandemic-low of one day prior to travel to now seven days (pre-pandemic norm was about 13 days), so we do know that people are starting to feel more comfortable making advance plans.”

Reports indicate that more people are starting to feel comfortable making advance travel plans as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout accererates. According to Bloomberg, about 252 million doses of the various COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the United States as of Thursday, May 6. Many cities across the U.S. are easing travel and lockdown restrictions, as have some other countries, such as Iceland and the European Union.

The one externality that could still scare people — and investors — off travel are new COVID-19 variants that have cropped up. That’s because if people believe the vaccine isn’t effective against them, they’re less likely to travel.

“Investors are still betting big that business travel will come back,” Coletta said. “Maybe not this year or next year, but at some point. There’s still big money going into that sector.”

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

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5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

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Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Screen Shot 2015-04-01 at 5.17.53 PM

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

fora travel crunchbase

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

IMG_5826

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya metro station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

IMG_5893

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

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January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

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December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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Travel Advisor

Christopher smiling and wearing a blue suit on a sunny day with a lake and trees in the background.

Christopher Lewis

  • Philadelphia ,
  • City Travel ,

New York City

Minimum booking Budget

$ 500 /night

Christopher smiling and wearing a blue suit on a sunny day with a lake and trees in the background.

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Profile details

I am a NYC-based traveler who likes to take my time to enjoy my destination with food and relaxation.

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Travel style.

I'm a traveler who likes to find a nearby pool and beach. I enjoy finding a place to enjoy the local food and wine.

Favorite hotels

W philadelphia.

Sleek modern high-rise located in the heart of the Philly, featuring breathtaking views of the city skyline through its floor-to-ceiling windows, with a rooftop pool and garden.

$100 hotel / resort credit.

Welcome amenity.

Breakfast daily.

Upgrade & extended check-in/out whenever possible.

Sonesta Philadelphia Rittenhouse Square

A contemporary urban retreat in the heart of the city, where comfort and sophistication seamlessly blend.

The Saint Paul Hotel

A timeless and elegant retreat in Minnesota, USA, seamlessly combining historic charm with modern luxury, offering upscale accommodations and a central location for a refined stay in the heart of St. Paul.

The Catalina Hotel & Beach Club

A chic boutique hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, offering guests a vibrant atmosphere, stylish accommodations, and easy access to South Beach's nightlife and pristine sands.

Christopher 's travel photos

IMAGES

  1. Contact Us

    fora travel crunchbase

  2. Travel Shop

    fora travel crunchbase

  3. Fora Travel

    fora travel crunchbase

  4. fora-travel

    fora travel crunchbase

  5. Fora Launches Integrated Booking Platform for Travel Advisors

    fora travel crunchbase

  6. Fora Raises $13.5M for its Tech-Enabled Travel Agency to Give Advisors

    fora travel crunchbase

COMMENTS

  1. Fora Travel

    Fora Travel. 13,193 followers. 1w. We're thrilled to unveil Fora's newest partners, showcasing a curated selection of boutique Italian gems to brand-wide preferred collections. Click the link to ...

  2. Fora Raises $13.5 Million in Series A Funding Round Co ...

    Enter Fora, which provides all the resources needed to launch a career as a travel agent. Since its inception, Fora has experienced exponential growth and now boasts nearly 500 advisors around the ...

  3. Inside Fora, the startup igniting a possible renaissance for travel agents

    Since launching in August just one year ago, Fora now boasts nearly 500 travel advisers worldwide (97% of whom have never worked in the sector before), operating within its network, with more than ...

  4. Fora Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors

    Fora General Information Description. Operator of a modern travel agency intended to empower travel entrepreneurs by curating the experiences for travelers. The company creates the trip from scratch and helps people to book what they have already decided on, and everything in between, helping people to connect with an advisor who understands their travel style and plans their dream trip together.

  5. Fora Raises $13.5 Million in Series A Funding Round Co ...

    The Funds will Accelerate the Next Evolution of the Innovative Travel Agency's Technology for Travel Advisors. New York, NY: Fora, a tech-forward travel agency ushering in a new generation of entrepreneurs, announced $13.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Heartcore Capital and Forerunner.Fora will use the funding to accelerate the next evolution of its platform: an innovative client and ...

  6. For those who want to turn travel into dollars, Fora can help start

    Since its soft launch in August, Fora has already booked $2 million in travel, and today, the company announced $5 million in a seed round. It was led by Forerunner Ventures with participation ...

  7. Fora: The Modern Travel Agency

    Plus, our Fora travel agents have insider access to over 5,000 preferred partnerships, meaning you get complimentary perks, priority upgrades and so much more at thousands of locations around the globe. We put serious time and airline mileage into visiting these properties in person so we can give you the up-to-date intel on your destination ...

  8. Travel Startups Are Getting Billions In VC Funding ...

    Funding to venture-backed startups in the travel and tourism sector amounted to around $4.8 billion across 629 deals in 2020, Crunchbase data shows. Both the dollar amount and deal count hit a five-year low. And that followed a record in 2019, when funding to travel and tourism startups in the past five years hit a record $10.8 billion.

  9. Meet Forum, Our All-in-One Community App

    At Fora, we're big on community. And one of the ways we foster connection each day is through Forum, our community app (and the namesake of the Live Forum, our biggest in-person event of the year).. Forum is our go-to place for sharing announcements, upcoming events, exclusive partner deals, exciting new partnerships, marketing tools, travel tips and so much more.

  10. Join Us

    Fora offers turn-key infrastructure, tools and resources to get you set up with everything you need to succeed as a travel advisor, including expert-led training, commission tracking and payments, seamless tech to make bookings a breeze and more. The first step to become a travel agent is to apply to join Fora.

  11. Elektrostal

    In 1938, it was granted town status. [citation needed]Administrative and municipal status. Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is incorporated as Elektrostal City Under Oblast Jurisdiction—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, Elektrostal City Under Oblast Jurisdiction is incorporated as Elektrostal Urban Okrug.

  12. Elektrostal to Moscow

    Drive • 1h 3m. Drive from Elektrostal to Moscow 58.6 km. RUB 450 - RUB 700. Quickest way to get there Cheapest option Distance between.

  13. Elektrostal Map

    Elektrostal is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located 58 kilometers east of Moscow. Elektrostal has about 158,000 residents. Mapcarta, the open map.

  14. The Journal

    Fora Travel, Inc. is registered with the following state licenses: California - Seller of Travel Registration No. 2151995-50 Florida - Seller of Travel Registration No. ST43973 Washington - Seller of Travel Unified Business ID (UBI) # 605329242.

  15. Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

    6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders. Novoslobodskaya metro station. 7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power.

  16. Book a Cruise Vacation

    Fora Travel, Inc. is registered with the following state licenses: California - Seller of Travel Registration No. 2151995-50 Florida - Seller of Travel Registration No. ST43973 Washington - Seller of Travel Unified Business ID (UBI) # 605329242.

  17. Christopher Lewis

    Fora Travel, Inc. is registered with the following state licenses: California - Seller of Travel Registration No. 2151995-50 Florida - Seller of Travel Registration No. ST43973 Washington - Seller of Travel Unified Business ID (UBI) # 605329242.