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Online travel agent nets $8 million

By Nick Britton on March 17 2008

Isango, a website selling tours and ‘travel experiences’, has secured its first institutional round of funding. A total of $8 million (£3.9 million) was raised in the round, which was led by UK-based SPARK Ventures.

SPARK contributed half of the funding: $500,000 from its own balance sheet and $3.5 million from Quester VCTs 1, 4 and 5. The second-largest investor was Beringea, manager of the ProVen VCTs, which invested $2.5 million. The balance came from existing shareholders.

The capital will be used to help roll out Isango’s booking platform with distribution partners, and develop additional services.

Isango’s CEO, Ranjan Singh, who founded the company in October 2006, says it has seen strong revenue growth since launch. He adds: ‘The market for travel experiences, tours and activities is the last frontier of online travel which remains unaggregated.’

Jay Patel, executive director at SPARK, says the entire online travel market, including ticket sales and hotel bookings, is worth $650 billion annually.

With offices in the US, the UK, France and India, Isango offers around 4,000 different travel experiences in 60 countries.

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