Secret Escapes secures £8 million, plots international expansion

October 15, 2012 By 3 Comments

Luxury flash sales site Secret Escapes has won £8m in new funding with Index Ventures leading the round.

According to a statement funds will go towards international expansion as well as strengthening the position in the UK.

The news comes days after Travesse, whose brands include Chic Retreats, Spire and Travel Intelligence, went into administration with its assets put up for sale.

Secret Escapes predominantly offers deals on four and five-star hotels as well as holidays.

The company says revenue increased 1400% in the year to August 2012 while members increased by 1.3m to more than two million.

The membership boost was largely down to a £5m pound marketing campaign, which kicked off in February and the start-up says its target is more than four million by the end of 2013.

Secret Escapes also plans to unveil further products including Secret Escapes Impulse to target the last-minute breaks market and offer same day deals.

Octopus Ventures and Atlas Venture also participated in this latest funding round.

The company launched in January (Tlabs here) and is run by Tom Valentine (ex-eBay) as well as former Dealchecker execs including  Alex Saint.

Related posts:

  1. Secret Escapes kicks off multi million marketing push with February TV slot
  2. Secret Escapes extends reach through partnership with online lifestyle club Achica
  3. Onefinestay secures $3.7 million investment, plots boutique city expansion
Filed Under: News Tagged With: , , , ,
Linda Fox About Linda Fox

Linda Fox is a reporter for Tnooz. For the past six years she has worked as a freelance journalist across a range of B2B titles including Travolution, ABTA Magazine, Travelmole and the Business Travel Magazine.

In this time she has also undertaken corporate projects for a number of high profile travel technology, travel management and research companies.

Prior to her freelance career she covered hotels and technology news for Travel Trade Gazette for seven years. Linda joined TTG from Caterer & Hotelkeeper where she worked on the features desk for more than five years.

Comments

  1. Stuart McD says:
    October 15, 2012 at 5:20 am

    Think you mean Travesse rather than Travora … :)

    Reply
  2. Linda Fox Linda Fox says:
    October 15, 2012 at 5:39 am

    Thx Stuart :)

    Reply
  3. Dora says:
    October 17, 2012 at 4:46 pm

    Well done, the announcement is no suprise. The market is flourishing. We have updated our latest publication and have seen an increase in flash sale companies growing in Europe.

    http://globaldailydealassociation.com/publications/

    Reply

Speak Your Mind

*