Hotelquickly, a last-minute booking service provider, announced the acquisition of A-1 series funding which reached $4,5 million (around Rp52 billion) by Gree from Japan. The CEO as well as the Chairman of Minor International, William E. Heinecke, was also involved in the funding through his family’s business.
HotelQuickly itself is the leading last-minute service provider in Asia Pacific. This funding completed the A series funding which was gained last September from several angel investors, in which the ex-Chairman of SingTel and Singapore Airlines Boon Hwee Koh was one of them, which resulted in $5,55 million (around Rp64 billion) of investment last year. It was announced that the funding will be used to accelerate the development of product, marketing, and recruitment or workers to trigger the selling as well as to maintain the company’s lead in the whole Asian Pacific.
Furthermore, Gree itself has also maintained similar service to HotelQuickly’s, which is called “Tonight” and covers only Japan, so that the investment will be used to strengthen that particular service as well as to widen the scope of their services. Hotelquickly has had its own market in 12 countries, including Indonesia, and can only be accessed via mobile phone application. In Indonesia itself, the service provided by HotelQuickly has covered 20 destinations, including Bali, Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Yogyakarta.
In its press release, the founder as well as the CEO of HotelQuickly, Thomas Laboutka, said that he had prepared the warmest welcome by saying, “We are extremely happy to have Gree and Bill Heinecke as one of our group of investors. Their experience may provide a huge profit for us. We also can accelerate our development thanks to their commitment. HotelQuickly will actively build the space for last-minute booking service in Asia Pacific, and we are glad to start our journey by knowing that we are in a good company.”
The member of Gree Excecutive Board, Eiji Araki, added, “HotelQuickly has developed on a phenomenal acceleration during last year which resulted on their lead in the last-minute booking service area by having more than 3,000 hotels and 100 destinations as their partners. This is where Gree is eager to participate in; we are looking to do cooperation with world-class talents possessed by HotelQuickly to accelerate our involvement in this area. The two companies will share the first mobile, in order to make this cooperation appropriate. I can’t wait to see what this cooperation can achieve in the future.”
HotelQuickly, which is available in iOS, Android, and Blackberry 10 platform and launched in March 2013, has now served hotel rooms booking services, along with their discounts, in more than 100 destinations in Asia Pacific.
Photo Illustration: Shuttershock
