More developments in Russian online travel this morning with news of $10 million in funding for Aviasales.
The investment in the flights and hotels metasearch specialist comes from iTech Capital which is taking a minority stake in the company.
The money is earmarked to develop the service further, expand the team (currently 80)and develop other areas of the business including sister-brand JetRadar, a recently launched Thai version and hotel metasearach service Hotellook.
Creating a mobile version of the site is also part of the strategy.
According to a statement, Aviasales receives more than four million unique visitors every month and 27% of queries from smartphones and tablets.
The statement also says average transaction value from mobile device users is 10% greater than for web customers.
Aviasales founder Konstantin Kalinov says:
“Partnering with iTech Capital will allow us to keep up the growth pace on a highly competitive market. At the moment Aviasales is growing by more than 100% a year. It is a major Russian search service in the travel sector, successfully competing with foreign projects,” says founder Konstantin Kalinov.
iTech Capital’s managing partner Gleb Davidyuk and investment manager Ilya Balandin become members of the board of directors of the metasearch service.
In November, iTech was rumoured to be interested in buying a 20 to 30% stake in Aviasales while in December, the venture capitalist invested $10 million in event ticket specialist, Ticketland.
Although serving the Russian outbound market, Aviasales' headquarters are in Phuket, Thailand.
The statement also quotes figures from the Federal Agency of Air Transport revealing the Russian passenger air travel market grew by 14.2% in 2013 to more than 84.5 million fliers.