Startup darling Hipmunk has wooed former-Expedia execs Rich Barton, Erik Blachford and Simon Breakwell to join a team investing $4.2 million in the business.
The group includes ex-Expedia CEOs Barton and Blachford, former-European boss Breakwell as well as Ignition Partners, Jim Hornthal of Triporati and Rob Glaser, founder of Real Networks.
Hipmunk says the investment round totals $4.2 million, although a recent SEC filing says the total offering amount could eventually reach $5.8 million.
Details of the backers were not release until today. Previous rounds of investment came in the form of Y Combinator and SV Angel.
CEO Adam Goldstein says much of the investment will be concentrated on hiring more engineers and development of the technology behind the widely talked about metasearch service [see TLabs Showcase - Hipmunk].
The site has attracted praise mostly for its unique flight search interface, but Hipmunk co-founder Steve Huffman's former life as one of the folk behind social bookmarking service Reddit ensured the site attracted the attention of the tech media in Silicon Valley more than you're average new travel website.
Launched initially using the Orbitz flights affiliate service, Hipmunk secured a deal with ITA Software in November to use the QPX system for airfare shopping and pricing.