News broke yesterday that Ctrip was acquiring Economy Hotel Manager. Huo.Li, the parent company of the hotel app, confirmed they were in investment talks with Ctrip later yesterday. The rumored funding is $6 million at a valuation of more than ten million approximately 20 million dollars.
Huo.Li first launched a hotel app in November 2011 and later split it into two, Economy Hotel Manager and Lian Hotel — for high-end hotels — for different demographic groups. It is reported that there are a combined more than 30 thousand nights booked monthly daily through the two apps.
Wang Jiang, CEO of Huo.Li, has been in the Internet business ever since 2001. His company and another two were formed Huo.Li in 2009. The company raised $5 million Series A and $15 million Series B funding in 2011.
Having been developing mobile apps and services, Huo.Li has a variety of apps in its product portfolio that include the well-performing Flights Manager, Maopao — one of the first Foursquare clones in China, and, most recently, HSR manager. Flights Manager announced ten million user milestone in September 2012.
Update: Ctrip confirmed the investment in Economy Hotel Manager (amount not disclosed) on May 24. The latter would be spun off from Huo.Li and to established a joint company with Ctrip.
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