JackRabbit Systems Raises $1.3 Million For Online Travel Software

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

JackRabbit Systems, a developer of a white-label online travel bookings software, has raised $1.33 million in funding from Kickstart Seed Fund and Sun Mountain Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to $3.7 million

JackRabbit’s main software, BookDirect, allows any website to embed a direct hotel booking system on their sites. Similar to Expedia, BookDirect gathers rates and availability information from lodging properties, and displays that information to consumers looking to book rooms. Consumers can then click from the search engine to the lodging property website to complete the booking.

The most common use cases for the company’s software have been for state and city travel sites, says founder Andrew Van Luchene, who was formerly the sixth employee at Priceline. For example, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority integrated JackRabbit’s software into its site. Since 2007, BookDirect has originated four million leads to hotels.

Of course, the online travel space is crowded, and full of worthy competitors, including Kayak, Expedia and even Bing and now Google. But JackRabbit’s platform seems to have a loyal following, so perhaps it will be able to compete in the space.

Funding: $1.33M

JackRabbit Systems develops online travel software for destination and travel portal websites. The software is designed to improve website functionality and usability in order to enhance the visitor’s experience and increase room nights in the selected destination. There BookDirectâ„¢ engine accomplishes these goals.

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