Just three weeks after launching from beta, hotel booking site RocketMiles announced a $2 million seed funding round led by Atlas Ventures. During its two-month trial run, the company proved that offering airline miles for hotel bookings could earn users up to 90,000 miles per year.
This is RocketMiles’ first external funding, and includes Link Ventures and Peterson Ventures in the convertible note financing round.
“We targeted institutions and angel investors who have proven track records in travel, loyalty marketing, and ECommerce,” says CEO and co-founder Jay Hoffman, when asked how he chose investors. “All of our investors are contributing immense strategic value in addition to capital.”
Hoffman says the funding will be used for customer acquisition as well as product improvement. At launch, users could earn points by booking hotels through RocketMiles in 15 American cities. Today, RocketMiles offerings bookings in 10 additional cities. According to Hoffman, expanded reach and development capabilities grew out of this funding.
The hotel bookings industry is valued at $50 billion, and the RocketMiles team seeks to build on it’s success so far to really make its mark. Its investors appear to be on the same page.
“Rocketmiles has developed a creative new way to add value to online travel, the largest e-commerce category,” said Ryan Moore, Partner, Atlas Venture, in a statement. “The unique business model and experienced founding members are impressive and we are very excited to be part of this team.”
Built In Chicago readers can earn 1,000 miles upon their first booking using the code BUILTINCHICAGO or via https://www.rocketmiles.com/refer/BUILTINCHICAGO.
Visit Rocketmiles' website, check out their BIC profile and follow them on Twitter at @rocket_miles.
