Travel Ad Network of New York said last week that it had closed a Series A financing round that raised $15 million; most of the money will be used to double the company's advertising sales force, push further into international markets and increase the number of Web sites to which its travel advertisers can turn.
Travel Ad Network is the largest vertical travel advertising network on the Web, with 50 upscale consumer travel site publishers participating in the network. TAN places and services integrated advertising campaigns for travel advertisers on sites like BBC's Lonely Planet and Rand McNally.
TAN is currently delivering 12.5 million monthly unique visitors to those Web sites. ComScore has ranked it third overall in the travel category for unique visitors, including transaction sites, and first in travel content visitors, TAN said.
The funding round was led by Rho Ventures, Village Ventures and a number of individual investors, said Cree Lawson, the company's founder and CEO.
"This means we are empowered with resources, contacts and expertise to help build the best travel audience online, which is what we have been aiming for all along," Lawson said. "With the resources we have had, we've already been able to emerge as a market leader within three years."
But more ambitious growth lies ahead, he said.
Lawson said that with the new financing the company was planning to expand its publisher base to 100 travel Web sites by the end of the year and to 1,000 within three years.
"Rho Ventures, Village Ventures and our other investors bring to our boardroom world-class expertise in such disciplines as branded media, network development, behavioral targeting and online advertising as witnessed by their successful investments in iVillage, TACODA, Waterfront Media, ReachLocal and a host of other very successful companies," Lawson said.
Habib Kairouz, managing partner at Rho Ventures, will join TAN's board, along with Rho Ventures partner Doug McCormick, the former CEO of Lifetime Networks and CEO of iVillage. Benjamin Wolin, CEO of Waterfront Media, the largest privately held online health company, will also join the board. Other directors include Lawson, TAN Chairman Michael H. Thomas and the company's COO, Brian Silver.
"This has been a year of extraordinary growth and achievement for TAN," Lawson said.
"We surpassed Yahoo Travel, generating the largest travel information audience online. We launched our first video advertising campaign and expanded our business to Canada and the U.K. this year. Our focus on quality continues to serve us well."
To contact reporter Dan Luzadder, send e-mail to [email protected].