Budget Hotel Brand RedDoorz Raises $11 Million: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Travel Startup Funding This Week

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Reporter Justin Dawes at [email protected] if you have funding news.

The total publicized this week was more than $89 million.

Earlier this week we covered how TripActions a business travel startup, closed a $51 million Series B funding round, led by Lightspeed Ventures.

Businesses hire TripActions to run their travel programs, and it rewards employees with Amazon gift cards or credits for personal vacation if the workers book cheaper travel than they might have otherwise.

Redeam, a travel startup based in Boulder, Colorado, raised $7.7 million in a Series A to help attraction operators automate their processes. Vertical Venture Partners led the round.

Here are other companies that said this week they had raised funding.

>>RedDoorz, a budget hotel startup based in Singapore, has raised $11 million in a pre-Series B round.

Investors include Susquehanna International Group, InnoVen Capital, Jungle Ventures, DeepSky Capital, FengHe Group, Hendale Capital, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. The company did not identify any investor as having led the round.

RedDoorz closed a $5 million Series A in 2016 and received a $1 million in debt last year.

The concept is similar to India-based soft brand network hotel chains like OYO Rooms, Treebo, and Fab Hotels that received large funding rounds in 2017.

Launched in 2015, RedDoorz said it has more than 500 properties and 180 workers. It claims to have serviced “more than 700,000 stayed room nights” in Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Co-founder and CEO Amit Saberwal noted that the company recently launched the first fully leased and operated hotel property in Singapore, rather than working with ones it doesn’t directly own.

>>Grabr, a company that connects consumers looking for international retail goods with travelers willing to act as couriers to deliver them, has secured $8 million in Series A funding.

Foundation Capital led the round. The funding brings the total that the startup has raised to date to $14 million. Prior investors include Founders Fund and SignalFire.

The company, founded in 2015, has 35 workers. It claims it has hundreds of thousands of users and that it has brokered deliveries in 53 countries so far.

>>Hotelogix, a hotel property management software platform, has raised $5 million in a Series A round.

Vertex Ventures led the round, and Accel Partners and Saama Capital also participated.

Founded in New Delhi in 2008, the company has previously raised $1.2 million and has 150 workers. It claims that hotels in more than 100 companies use its software for managing operations, reservations, front desks, and distribution to online travel agencies.

>>Mad Paws, a Sydney-based startup that brokers pet-sitting services, has raised $3.8 million (AUD$5 million).

Qantas led the round. The airline also signed a commercial arrangement with the startup so that pet owners can earn frequent flyer points when booking a sitter via the marketplace.

Microequities Venture Capital, the Scale Up Media Fund, and Macdoch Ventures also invested in the company, founded in late 2014. It previously raised close to $1 million.

>>Wingly, a European flight-sharing platform, closed a seed financing round that is part-equity $1.8 million (€1.5 million) and part-debt $616,000 (€500,000). Angel investors led the round along with Howzat Partners.

The company plays matchmaker between private pilots and passengers, like ride-sharing platform Blablacar but only for flights.

Pilots post online trips they would like to take, and passengers can book a ride. For the past nine months, it has operated in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and it claims to have helped arrange more than 10,000 bookings.

The startup plans to double the size of its team, which is currently 13 employees.

>>Shep, a business tool for travelers, has raised $1.4 million in seed funding.

Moonshots Capital led the round, and Capital Factory participated. The Austin, Texas-based company lets corporate travelers use its tool to book business travel on consumer sites while tracking their spending on behalf of employers.

Check out our previous startup funding roundups here.