8trip, a B2B tourism service, announced 150 million yuan ($24.45 million) of funding from Vision Knight Capital and SBCVC. This is so far the largest capital injection in this sector in China (report in Chinese).
Founded in December 2012, 8trips serves as a platform that bridge the gap between upstream tourism service providers and downstream travelling agencies, improving the trading efficiency for the two parties.
The fund raised this time will be used to improve the online platform and user experience, according to Yuan Dong, founder and CEO of the company. He added that 8trip will spin off the homegrown tourism services to focus squarely on B2B market, pledging that the company will not make inroads into terminal market.
Vision Knight Capital has previously invested in 91, 500wan, Allyes, and PPS. The big names in SBCV’s investment portfolio are Alibaba, Taobao, and Focus Media. The two experienced investors set eyes on 8trip because they are bullish on potentials of B2B tourism market as well as the innovation and executive power of the team, said Wei Zhe, partner of Vision Knight Capital.
8trip covers the markets of Wuxi, Nanjing, and Anhui this year, planning to explore oversea markets next year. The company established cooperation with nearly 1,000 tourism agencies and more than 4,000 service outlets.
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