Location-based social travel app Spottly has just raised a US $850,000 seed round to back their video-focused product and to expand into new markets. Investors in this round include Silicon Valley’s 500 Startups, China’s Cherubic Ventures and Gobi Partners.
A trip planning aid that allows travelers to discover places from their smartphone, Spottly is an attractive repository of handpicked travel tips from 17,000 places, 2,100 cities and 115 countries – and has a growing user base in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and Thailand. The newly launched v.2.0 lets users create video travel posts, instead of just sharing static images.
“As more and more people use social media to share their travel finds instantaneously, we found that travelers increasingly prefer beautifully curated visual recommendations, served to you right away through social media, trusted friends and local key opinion insiders,” said founder Edwyn Chan in a release. “The next generation travel guide will need to be curated, instant and visual.”
As one of Cyberport’s incubatees, Spottly has gained a significant amount of traction since its launch earlier this year. After being featured three times as the ‘Best New App’ in 15 countries on iTunes and being included in the ‘Top 3 Most Impactful Digital Innovation’ at the Digital Innovation Asia Awards this month, Spottly has become quite the media darling – with features in Conde Nast Traveller UK, Esquire, Asia Tatler, Tech in Asia and TechNode.
Founder Edwyn Chan at last year’s Mobilliance 2013, our mobile startup showcase – look how far he’s come!
This is Spottly’s old deck used at last year’s Mobilliance 2013 – it doesn’t reflect where the startup is now, but it’s interesting to see how far they’ve come in less than a year and good inspiration for new startups to learn from:
The app is optimized for iOS 8 and will be available for Android in the next month. Visit their site here.
Spottly on Startbase.HK: Spottly
