Indonesia-based budget hotels reservation startup Nida Rooms has secured $4.2 million in a pre-series A funding round led by two Asian venture capital firms, Convergence Ventures and CyberAgent Ventures. The round was facilitated by independent advisor Emergebridge.
Nida Rooms was launched in December last year as a solution to the fragmented budget hotel industry in Southeast Asia, giving travelers uniformity of service at competitive rates. It currently has presence in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia, with more than 3,100 rooms online.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Nida Rooms Kaneswaran Avili said the funds will be used to further develop its business in the country, as well as expanding marketshare in the Southeast Asia. He said the company is planning to expand into Vietnam and South America.
“The signing of this agreement is an important milestone for the company’s future development plan, as Nida Rooms is now embarking on the second phase in fulfilling its promises to our hotel partners and consumers by generating bookings and revenues,” Avili said in a statement.
Meanwhile, director of CyberAgent Venture Steven Vanada said that budget travel is a multi-billion dollar industry with massive room for growth and a huge potential.
“Having watched how the LCC business model has generated tremendous profit over the last decade, we believe that the same will happen to the budget travel sector, which makes it a very strategic investment for us,” said Vanada.
NIDA Rooms has partnered with over 1,000 hotels located in various cities in Indonesia and aims to have 2,000 hotel partners by year-end. In total, NIDA Rooms has partnerships with over 3,500 hotels spread across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines. By the end of 2016, it aims to increase partnerships to 7,500.
The company has recently appointed Justin Cohen as its newest member of board directors. Cohen, bringing with him years of experience from numerous tech companies such as 90min.com, J Squared, NEC Computers, PartyGaming and HomeGuru, will be responsible for NIDA Rooms’ digital business development.
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