Outbound Tourism Service Shijiebang Announced Series A Funding Led by Yahoo Founder Jerry Yang

Shijiebang, an outbound and backpack tourism service platform, secured nearly $10 million of Series A financing from angel investors led by Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Fosun Capital and ChinaRock (report in Chinese).

The company has received millions of yuan in angel round from Jerry Yang, Tencent’s early-stage investor Wang Shu, and Wu Shangzhi, partner of CDH Investments.

The capital raised this time will be invested in system construction, marketing and small acquisitions, according to Zhang Pinghe, board chairman of the company.

Shijiebang provides custom and cost-effective tourism services. Instead of providing tourism products itself, Shijiebang serves as a platform and offers third-party trading guarantee and schedule design services to customers.

Shijiebang now provides 16 categories of services like tickets, visa application, hotel reservation, and guarantee. It has signed cooperation agreement with hundreds of merchants across 20 countries.

Rapid development of online tourism market draws attentions of investors. According to data released by iResearch, the market size of China’s online tourism industry is expected to surge 28% this year, soaring to 100 billion yuan by 2015 with a penetration rate of 26.4%. Similar outbound tourism services are Qyer, Ukubang, and Weego.