Fosun’s Venture Capital Arm Backs Israeli Booking Site in an Ongoing Travel Push
Skift Take
While Western media tends to focus on the funding moves of corporate venture capital arms of regional brands like JetBlue and EasyJet, it’s also important to see how key investment players in Asia, like Shanghai-based Fosun, are investing, such as in Splitty, a hotel booking startup.
Chinese investment group Fosun keeps broadening its travel portfolio. In December its majority-owned travel company, Fosun Tourism, which includes Club Med, spun out as a separate public company that claims to be the largest leisure tourism resort group in the world by revenue.
On Monday, Fosun’s Shanghai-based corporate venture capital arm, Fosun RZ Capital, said it had led a $6.75 million Series A investment round in Splitty, a hotel booking startup based in Israel.
“Fosun will definitely invest more in travel,” said Wilson Jin, chairman of Fosun RZ Capital.
In March 2017, Fosun RZ invested in Ixigo, which has since become the largest price-comparison travel search brand in India. It’s reported to be participating in a Series C round in Ixigo, too. It has invested in Shijie Bang, a Beijing-based travel agency specializing in outbound international services for Chinese travelers. The venture capital unit helped Fosun’s insurance company invest in MakeMyTrip, India’s largest online travel agency, which is similar to China’s Ctrip — which has, in turn, also invested in MakeMyTrip.
A Bet on Blending Hotel Reservat
