Travel Meta Search Pte Ltd (TMS) has received a €8 million (US$10.2 million) round of financing.

Travel Meta Search Pte Ltd (TMS) has received a €8 million (US$10.2 million) round of financing.

Published: 31 Aug 2006

Travel Meta Search Pte Ltd (TMS) has received a €8 million (US$10.2 million) round of financing.

Travel Meta Search is a new start-up resulting from the merger of two major travel Internet search engine companies: Coelis, based in Strasbourg, and Fare.Net, based in Singapore.

The company says the financing has been led by France’s Sofinnova Partners and joined by Walden International, the venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco with a strong presence throughout Asia.

Following the latest financing round, Pascal Bordat, chief executive officer, TMS said, “We are convinced that both leisure and business travellers in those regions and beyond will come to consider TMS to be an indispensable tool in planning their travels.”

TMS’s new website, which will offer advanced “Web 2.0” user participation features, will be announced shortly.

It also stated that the website will be based on both companies technology and in particular Coelis’s “shopbot” software. TMS’s website will enable the user to search major airlines, online travel agencies, travel wholesalers and low-cost airlines (LCA). As a result, travellers can compare all the market fares and find the absolute lowest airfares within and from Asia Pacific and Europe on one convenient website without having to consult dozens of different websites.

“There is enormous potential in Asia for a new travel portal such as TMS,” says Hock Voo Loo, managing director, Walden International. “We believe both Asian and European Internet users will be attracted by TMS’s revolutionary approach to online travel search. Walden is pleased to join this financing round, which will accelerate TMS’s development in two strategic geographical regions.”

According to a release by the company, travel search remains one of the main applications in the consumer Internet space. In 2008/9, online advertising by the travel industry worldwide is estimated to reach $20 billion to $25 billion, with $7 billion to $9 billion coming from online search. While first-generation online travel agencies (OTA), offered the convenience of virtual “one-stop” travel shops, new generation search tools such as TMS match consumers’ appetite for open choice, access to all market prices and direct access to the inventory of travel suppliers. The new generation also meets the growing need of travel operators for a low-cost, more efficient marketing channel for their services.

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