Outbound Tourism Service ByeCity Gets Nearly $20 Million Series B Funding Led by Alibaba

ByeCity, a Chinese outbound traveling service, announced that it secured nearly $20 million of Series B financing from Alibaba Group and CBC Capital.

The company has received around 10 million dollars from JAFCO Asia and Investor Growth Capital in 2008 and an undisclosed amount from TaishanXD in 2011. The capital raised will be used in network construction, branding and enhancement of user experiences.

Founded in 2000 as a pioneer of Chinese outbound travelling industry, ByeCity gives priority to its visa application service over other businesses like package tours, hotel and flight ticket reservation, etc.

The company provides simple and easy visa application services with a success rate of 99.8%, according to the firm, adding that it has processed the visa applications of more than 400K tourists in 2013, rocketing 471% YOY from 2012 and 1,233% YOY as compared with 2011. It also pledged to reimburse the customers if their visa applications were failed.

Alibaba Group made forays into online tourism industry along with the booming development of this territory. It established Travel Department last year by integrating relevant businesses like Taobao Travel, and then, invested in social travel app 117go and outbound travel service Qyer. Etao, the shopping search service under Alibaba Group, also started a hotel search service last year.

image credit: ByeCity