UK Online Travel Entrepreneur Hugo Burge Dies at 51

25.08.2023 - 13:37 / skift.com / Sean Oneill

Hugo Burge, a British entrepreneur, startup investor, and arts supporter perhaps best known as the former CEO of both Cheapflights and then the Momondo Group, died at his home on Wednesday.

“A terrible and unexpected loss,” said David Soskin, who worked as a co-investor with Burge across two decades. “He was much too modest about his talents, not only as a successful technology CEO and investor but also as a creator of an arts and crafts center at Marchmont House, his magnificent Palladian residence in Scotland.”

In 2000, Burge co-founded Howzat Media, a firm investing in digital businesses. An early investment was in UK-headquartered online travel deals company Cheapflights, when it was a three-person operation.

Burge advised and became CEO of Cheapflights, helping it grow to the point that in 2011 it acquired Denmark-based travel-price comparison site Momondo. Burge became CEO of the combined Momondo Group and used bank debt, serviced out of cash flow, to create an organization with more than 350 employees. In 2014, private equity investment injected $130 million.

In 2017, the Priceline Group (now Booking Holdings) acquired Momondo Group for $550 million.

“It quickly became clear to all of us that Hugo was a businessman from the top shelf, intelligent, empathetic, calm, analytical, mathematical, and very hardworking,” said Martin Lumbye. who met Burge in 2009 when Burge was CEO and main shareholder of Cheapflights Media, and he was then a partner and part of the team that negotiated the merger and sale of Momondo to Cheapflights. “Hugo’s background as an incarnate English gentleman was not only a style but also an honest part of his personality.”

Along the way, Burge played an early-stage investor in startups, primarily travel ones, through another firm, Howzat Ventures. One early investment was in Trivago. By 2012, when the firm exited Triavgo, the startup had a $1 billion valuation.

After the Momondo Group deal and the Trivago payout, Burge stepped down as CEO and left online travel.

In 2018, The Times of London, in typical British cheek, said at the time that Burge “might be the nation’s most eligible bachelor.” The quote seemed to mortify him.

The Momondo sale led Burge to create a new fund, Marchmont Ventures, that supported activities with the ultimate purpose of building “sustainable creativity.”

Burge and Alan Martin, formerly chief financial officer at Momondo Group, ran the fund. Investments have included supporting the re-launch of an art fair in southern Scotland.

Burge dreamt of transforming Marchmont House — a mansion in Greenlaw, Scotland — into a home for creators.

In 1988, Burge’s father Oliver, as a director of Marchmont Farms Ltd., bought part of the Marchmont estate. Then