Singapore-based Web travel booking and discovery startup Flocations has closed US$570,000 (SG$700,000) in seed funding from a range of Asia-based investors as it prepares to ramp up its service.
The round was led by TNF Ventures and includes cash from SingTel Innov8 — the corporate venture capital arm of SingTel — and angel investor Ben Ball. The new funds will be used to develop the website and add new features. Most notably that will see the price comparison site for Asia Pacific introduce an option to let users find one combined price for hotel and flights.
Tudor Coman, one of the three co-founders behind the company — which graduated from the inaugural JFDI-SingtelInnov8 Bootcamp accelerator program this year — explains more:
“This is an extremely exciting step for Flocations as this funding allows us to launch our new feature set that combine both hotels and flights into one price, in addition to the continuation and finance of operations across Asia Pacific. This means users can search for a whole vacation just by putting in their price and also lets them discover places they never even thought of within seconds.”
Flocations, for those that haven’t used it yet, is a visual-based flight search service that lets users seek and find flights, hotels and prices using a map-based layout. The site automatically detects a user’s location based on their IP address (though this can be changed) and, using its ‘price slider’, it then shows potential routes that can be taken within a designated budget.
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The site is a great way to find spontaneous trips across Asia Pacific and it impressed Air Asia enough for the airline to get Flocations to power its new Google Chrome app, which launched in June.
Flocations also has its own Google Chrome app and an app for Facebook, as is practically standard in today’s Facebook-dominated Internet era. The company’s technology can be easily added to websites, as it has done with Southeastasiabackpacker.com.
Earlier this year, Flocations raised almost US$12,000 in investment from the JFDI Asia Bootcamp. Indeed, SingTel Innov8 was lead sponsor for the accelerator program and, in participating in the round, it maintains its links to Flocations.
SingTel Innov8 presented terms sheets to the startup as the JFDI program closed, but a deal has only been closed. Reflecting on the news, Edgar Hardless, CEO of SingTel Innov8, said:
“We are excited about the innovation Flocations will bring to the travel space. Everyone loves a bargain and Flocations changes the way travelers discover vacation spots, enabling them to learn about places they never considered within a budget.”
Speaking of JFDI Asia, the Singapore-based incubator last week announced that it has opened its 2013 program for applications. The firm is planning to hold two intakes next year which will help promising young entrepreneurs — like the trio behind Flocations — get an opportunity to develop their own business.
Headline image via Mikhail Starodubov / Shutterstock
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