You know by now that the niche online travel sector is either heating up or boiling over. Groople has being raising money, Kayak closed a round at EURO9mm and is a toast of Europe (according to Red Herring) (UPDATE - RedHerring link seems to be dead along with the news paper. New link here to alarm:clock who cite the round at Euro 8million not 9) and Red Herring itself seems to be carrying a travel industry story every other week. Questions of bubbles and busts have naturally been raised.
Now - in what appears to be out of the blue - the founders of Singaporean based Fare.net have raised more than US$10mm to launch a new travel meta search business in Europe and Asia. Rumours are that the post money valuation of this new venture is as much as $50mm. Leading the business will be former Zuji CEO and Travelprice COO Pascal Bordat (though strangely the Red Herring article does not mention his Zuji background). This venture is backed by smart VC money - Sofinnova Partners in Paris and Walden from the Valley - but they will have to move quickly. Kayak and Sidestep have the global lead and are making moves in Europe, and Bezurk has been operating in the Asian market for a few years now with smart people behind it.
Bezurk has a much better product than Fare.net and has been getting distribution and supply traction (including recent a deal with Lonely Planet).
Another front for us to watch in the Asia online travel war.
Update - company now called Sprice
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