Worktopia Secures Series B Financing From Samwer Brothers New York- March 13th, 2008 – Worktopia (www.worktopia.com), the first and only online booking engine for meeting space in hotels, conference centers, airport clubs and other venues, has secured $5 million of additional capital for further domestic and international expansion. This Series B investment was led by serial entrepreneurs Oliver, Marc and Alexander Samwer through their European Founders Fund (EFF). The Samwer Brothers are investors in Linked-In and founded Jamba, Alando and other notable companies. All existing institutional investors, including DFJ Gotham Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners and High Peaks Venture Partners participated in the round. The new capital will be deployed to address strong demand from corporate customers for access to global inventory through Worktopia’s online meeting booking service. The service is available through Worktopia’s global distribution partners Sabre and Travelport and through corporate travel booking tools like GetThere® and major travel management company partners, as well as online at Worktopia.com. Worktopia satisfies growing demand from corporate customers for visibility, control and cost savings through efficient procurement for the unmanaged, small meeting category. Worktopia enables real-time pricing and real time booking of meeting space, catering and audio visual services, along with integrated group room-night reservation and attendee management services on its corporate version. Now simple meetings of fewer than 100 attendees can be automated, and not subjected to the same complex, time consuming “request for proposal” negotiation processes that is used for larger meetings. “It is our ambition to help establish Worktopia as Europe’s number one booking engine for simple meetings,” said Oliver Samwer. “Europe is already generating $150 billion in annual meeting revenue, with over 60% of these meetings being for fewer than 50 attendees. Worktopia has a huge opportunity for growth by moving existing corporate meeting procurement processes to their efficient on-line solution.” “We are very pleased to have attracted this investment from such a valued partner,” said John Arenas, CEO and founder of Worktopia. “The Samwer brothers are known for their strength in identifying category-defining U.S. companies and investing to support expansion in Europe and beyond, in both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer categories. We are delighted that they have chosen to support Worktopia’s international expansion. While the company was otherwise planning on a Series B later in the year, the unsolicited opportunity to work with EFF, leveraging their capital and experience to accelerate our growth, was very compelling.” Simple corporate meetings are widely recognized as one of the last substantial “white spaces” in the internet-enabling of the travel marketing industry. Meetings consisting of 100 or fewer attendees remain one of the largest unmanaged spend categories for businesses in the US and around the world. Worktopia has been called the “holy grail” of small meetings procurement for its ability to let companies check availability, see pricing and book any type of meeting space, AV, catering and group room-nights online for the first time. Worktopia allows corporate meeting planners, travel agents and administrative assistants to instantly find meeting space to meet any budget or space requirement in over 2,000 properties in the US. About Worktopia About European Founders Fund |
