Leland Pillsbury Thayer Ventures, the only venture capital firm focused specifically on innovation in travel technology, announced the appointment of Leland “Lee” Pillsbury as Managing Director, and launched its third investment fund, targeted to raise $100 million to invest in disruptive companies in the $10 trillion global travel and hospitality industry. Pillsbury is co-founder and co-chairman of Thayer Lodging Group, a Brookfield Company; founder of the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship at the Cornell School of Hospitality Administration; Chairman of the Board of Interstate Hotels and founder of numerous other companies. He brings more than 40 years of experience in travel to Thayer Ventures as he assumes the role of managing director. Pillsbury has been a senior advisor to the firm since inception. With experience scaling start-up companies and helping them achieve rapid market penetration in the complex travel space, the Thayer Ventures team has funded dozens of enterprises. Its first two Funds are invested in more than 20 start-ups that have already transformed the travel landscape - including market leaders such as Duetto, ADARA, Social Tables, BookingPal and Sonder. Among other businesses, Pillsbury co-founded Thayer Lodging Group, where he spent more than 15 years overseeing strategic expansion and a successful sale to Brookfield Asset Management. He is now a senior advisor to Brookfield Global Lodging. He began his career with a 19-year tenure with Marriott Hotels, where he rose to the position of EVP, revamping the group’s pricing strategies, creating the industry’s first revenue and yield management systems and more. Pillsbury has launched and directed close to 20 companies since that time. In line with its sole focus on travel technology, Thayer Ventures leverages a uniquely deep network of decision makers to help capture proprietary deal flow, offer portfolio companies unmatched tactical and strategic value, and drive partner returns. Many of its early stage investments have been the beneficiaries, including companies such Duetto, which has raised more than $68 million through Series A, B and C investments, TripBAM, which is disrupting hotel distribution, Hipmunk, which recently sold to SAP, and Traxo, which recently announced a Series B round of more than $5 million from companies including TripAvisor.