Trip-planning site TravelMuse zooms ahead with $2M
TravelMuse, a web site and widget maker that allows users to make, save and book elaborate travel plans, has raised $2 million of an anticipated $3.9 million in debt and equity funding, according to VentureWire. Based in Los Altos, Calif., the company gained $517,000 of that oney from the conversion of promissory notes into preferred stock. It had raised $3.5 million in a first round of venture funding in 2007 from Azure Capital Partners, California… Continue Reading
No free lunch: The story behind VirtualTourist’s big exit, and Lunch.com
In a quiet deal announced last year, online travel conglomerate Expedia scooped up travel sites, VirtualTourist and OneTime, for undisclosed amounts. But I’ve recently learned that the final price totaled around $85 million — much more than I would have guessed. So I caught up with a cofounder of the companies, J.R. Johnson, to get the details. A serial entrepreneur in the midst of launching a new company (social review site Lunch.com, which recently came… Continue Reading
Rumor: Travel site Expedia may go private
Expedia, a publicly traded travel planning site, may be going private, we’re hearing from within the financial bowels of New York. This is just a rumor but we’re publishing it anyway because the move could make sense, and our readers deserve to know the idea is out there.
Expedia’s site is from another era, by which I mean the 90s. It’s boring and it hasn’t changed much in recent years. A range of smaller travel sites… Continue Reading
TravelMuse launches new widget, scores $600K
It’s a good week for trip planning website TravelMuse. It launched its first application, the TravelMuse Plan-It!, which allows users to collect travel information from a range of sites in one centralized location — and then share it with their friends. On top of that, it brought in $600,000 in first-round funding from Azure Capital Partners.
The widget, designed for placement on travel blogs, lets users quickly save content by clicking on a Plant-It! icon on… Continue Reading
Travel startup UpTake set to launch opinions super-site
With so many online travel sites crowding the market, you’d think we were nearing a Web 2.0 travel bubble. But according to travel information search engine UpTake, which is launching May 14, there’s still an untapped niche in the market: a travel-opinions supersite.
The market is extremely fragmented with thousands of micro-sites for individual hotels, beaches, airlines and leisure activities. UpTake’s goal is to gather opinions from all of those sites together and become the most… Continue Reading
NileGuide aims to own trip itinerary business
Online travel sites are an increasingly crowded space, so much so that it can be difficult to differentiate between them. NileGuide is attempting to offer something different, a full-service travel site that exists online. The site will help you plan a trip from start to finish. The mission is to own the trip itinerary business.
NileGuide saw the first wave of travel sites as useful simply for booking. The second wave, was good for limited user-generated… Continue Reading
Roundup: Giving up on the “mobile web,” cleantech gets crunched, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Mobile enthusiast gives up on “mobile web” – Russell Beattie, a Silicon Valley developer and mobile enthusiast who spent two years working at Yahoo Mobile before launching a start-up called Mowser, has given up on the mobile sector. He writes: “The general answer is that I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at… Continue Reading
Round-up: Google acquisition rumors, Apple 3G iPhone coming
Intel bullish on mobile Internet handhelds: The world’s biggest chip maker said more than 25 companies have signed up to use its low-power Atom microprocessors in upcoming “mobile Internet devices” (MIDs). The new category of wireless broadband-enabled devices will combine the features of Internet-enabled computers and navigation units in a handheld, with the first devices appearing in late May and early June in China, South Korea, and Japan. The chips consume anywhere from 0.65 watt… Continue Reading