Worktopia is trying to make it easier for business people to quickly organize small meetings. It offers a searchable online database for places like conference rooms in hotels, airport club conference rooms and other often under-used meeting places. Once you find the meeting rooms with Worktopia, you can make online reservations for your group.
The Harrison, N.Y. company is targeting organizations that want to easily put together a meeting of less than 100 people, making it so organizations themselves don’t have to go through a meeting-site approval process with the meeting-space owner. To find a location, you enter information such as the city and date when you’d like to meet, then you can choose options like the size of the meeting space, the neighborhood in the city, and other information. You can also sort for locations based on whether or not catering is available. After entering the criteria for the meeting place you want, Worktopia provides you with a list of options, including live cost quotes and reservation information.
So, for example, based on a rather general search I did for board rooms with Internet access in San Francisco, I get a list of recommendations — with the number one recommendation being Embassy Suites at the San Francisco Airport.
The company has raised nearly $6 million from the Samwer brothers through their investment vehicle, the European Founders Fund. DFJ Gotham Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners and High Peaks Venture Partners participated in the round; the deal was announced last month.
