Room 77 Closes $30.3 Million Series C From Expedia And Others To Take Its Hotel Search Engine Global
Summary
Travel search giant Expedia Inc. participated in the round as a new investor; existing investors in the company including Sutter Hill Ventures General Catalyst Partners, Felicis Ventures, Concur Technologies, Expedia’s founder Rich Barton, former Expedia CEO Erik Blachford, and Hotwire co-founder and current Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff all chipped in as well. The hefty funding round shows a quick ascent for Room 77, as the company just launched in February of 2011. But it’s apparently a good time for hotel metasearch, and Expedia in particular is taking a keen interest in the space: Just last month Expedia spent some $630 million to acquire a majority stake in European hotel metasearch company Trivago. In a press release announcing the funding, Room 77 cites data that says the hotel vertical represents “the largest and most profitable category in online travel,” making more than $165 billion in gross bookings annually. The company says its own growth has been swift, and that its engine has facilitated the booking of “hundreds of thousands” of hotel rooms over the past nine months alone.