Otelz.com, an online travel agency based in Turkey, has secured $1.4 million in Series A funding from a group of investors including Howzat Partners.
The OTA is a full-service agency with a focus on directly contracted properties. It currently has around 4,000 on its books and claims to be the only OTA operating in Turkey which does not require bookers to pay a deposit as all its hotels, villas and apartments allow payment at the hotel.
Accommodation partners are also in control of the pricing and availability which appears on otelz.com.
It is interested in domestic, outbound and inbound travel and part of the funding will be used to build up its multi-lingual support options for people looking to visit Turkey.
London-based Howzat Partners was set up by Hugo Burge and David Soskin from Cheapflights (now Momondo) in 2006. Its most successful investment and exit to date was Trivago, the hotel metasearch business, sold to Expedia Inc for some $630 million in 2013.
Other named investors include California-based Elixir, which has investment vehicles focussed on south-east Asia.
Otelz.com was founded in 2013 and has grown by 170% a year so far. It said that this year growth rates will be 200% with 2016 also in line for further triple-digit increases.
Related coverage from Tnooz:
Lodgify, the vacation rental platform, raises Euro 600,000 (May15)
[another Howzat investment] -
Online travel in Turkey is now primed for the big time (Jan15)
[general market perspective]
Mozio raises $750K to grow its airport transfer booking engine (May 14)
[another Howzat investment]