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For travel entrepreneur Aaron Gowell, the next leg of the journey begins in Newton — at a startup called SilverRail Technologies Inc.
The former General Catalyst Partners founding employee had left his post as entrepreneur-in-residence at the Cambridge VC firm in March to start SilverRail Technologies. The Newton-based company has received $5.5 million of a $6 million Series A equity investment from Wellesley-based GrandBanks Capital, PAR Capital of Boston, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Sutter Hill Ventures, Gowell confirmed.
Gowell confirmed that the startup, orignally formed under the name Anorak Corp., is a travel-related technology company. That’s not surprising. Between stints at General Catalyst, Gowell was president and CEO at National Leisure Group Inc., a Woburn-based marketer of vacation packages. General Catalyst was the founding VC firm behind travel site Kayak.com.
Interestingly enough, General Catalyst did not participate in the firm’s A round. Managing Director Joel Cutler, who worked with Gowell running National Leisure Group after General Catalyst bought back the company from its 1995 acquirer, Cendant Corp., said he thinks Gowell’s new venture is a “great opportunity,” but wouldn’t say much more.
GrandBanks managing general partner Charles Lax, who led the firm’s investment, also declined to talk specifics about the new company. The funding was first reported in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Aug. 21 under the Anorak name.
Beyond that, it’s hard to get much further information about Anorak, other than this Wikipedia page, which notes that the word itself is U.K. slang for ‘geek,’ deriving from railfans who wore them while trainspotting. Meanwhile, in the U.S., the federal government is getting ready to spend $8 billion to build intercity high-speed rail.
Gowell wouldn’t say whether his new company is related specifically to train travel.
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