Switchfly has raised $2.8 million, adding to the $15 million it raised this spring and completing its Series C financing.
A new investor participated in this portion of the round: Thayer Ventures, a San Francisco venture capital firm that was formerly Quest Hospitality Ventures. The Switchfly deal is part of Thayer Ventures’ strategy to invest in companies disrupting traditional hospitality sector models — with more to come in 2013.
All existing investors (Azure, Canaan, and StarVest) participated, too, in this closing of the Series C round, which Tnooz covered when it launched.
The nine-year-old startup is a San Francisco software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of white-label travel, loyalty and online payment solutions for airlines, hotel companies, online travel agencies. Many of its top level people are alumni of Hotwire.
It was the purchase of Topguest that energized investor interest in the company. One of Topguest’s innovative products is to enable travel companies to reward their members with bonus points for eligible social media “check-ins.”
Since then, Switchfly has added MGM Resorts with its M Life program to its roster of clients. It also integrated a points-plus-cash redemption for vacation packages for JetBlue’s Getaways product.*
International expansion is in the cards, says the company. Currently Switchfly pulls together the reward redemption options from more than 300,000 travel suppliers.
In prepared remarks, Jeff Jackson, managing director, Thayer Ventures, said:
“Switchfly’s expansion into social media and payment solutions complements the company’s core travel and loyalty platforms.”
This investment is from our first fund, formed in 2010, and is based on what we believe is a strong outlook and positive market dynamics for Switchfly with its world-class team and a highly satisfied customer base.
We have an aggressive appetite for investment in companies like Switchfly where we believe we can make a difference and add value.”
 NB: Post corrected after publication. I mistakenly said Virgin Elevate was a new client as of this summer. I regret the error.
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About Sean O'Neill
I met with these guys today (ironically) and not only love their business, but their culture and team are totally on the ball. Just a good all around energy, creating incredible things and congrats to them!
Thanks for sharing that!
Continued congrats to this group. I think their next acquisition is likely to tell a tale of how deep they can go to “Facebookize travel loyalty rewards”. Funny thing about this statement, to do so means that the member of the loyalty rewards programs will need to have some leverage as to where and how their own data footprint travels and until the industry unlocks that data (i.e., the current stranglehold that Southwest, American and Delta have on member loyalty data), it may be hard to Facebook any of this. Suggest there is a niche for Switchfly to become a conduit alongside Points.com.
Great management team and thy don’t miss much.
Randy,
Thanks for your insightful comment.
Coming from America’s leading expert on loyalty programs, your words carry a lot of weight.
Best,
Sean