This Week in Travel Startup Funding: Southeast Asia's On-Demand Taxi Scene Heats Up

Each week we round up the latest crop of travel startups that have received or announced funding that week. The total amount raised this week was $352.5 million.

Here are two companies that announced they raised funding this week, listed in order by the highest amount raised. See previous roundups here.

>>GrabTaxi raised a $350 million Series E round from new investors Coatue Management and China Investment Corp. and existing investors SoftBank Capital and Tiger Global Management, bringing the Singapore-based startup's total funding to more than $680 million.

Launched in 2012, the on-demand mobile app for taxi service is a major rival to Uber in Southeast Asia and is available in 26 cities across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It claims to have 110,000 drivers in Southeast Asia and will use the new funding to start offering motorbikes and private cars depending on income levels and traffic congestion in different markets.

>>Away raised a $2.5 million seed round from investors including Accel Partners, Forerunner Ventures and Battery Ventures. Away is based in New York City.

Planning to launch later this year, Away is a luxury luggage company that wants to make high-end products more affordable by selling them directly to consumers without using a middleman. A Chinese manufacturer will make the luggage and Away will source its own materials. Although prices aren't finalized, the startup anticipates its luggage selling for around $200, which it claims is much cheaper than the $500 industry average for luxury luggage.

Away's luggage would also offer device-charging capabilities and location-tracking through an accompanying app.