INTOHOTEL.COM, which provides travel-management services for businesses, said yesterday it had received US$30 million in first-round venture-capital funding.
United States-based Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers will provide the bulk of the money, with the rest coming from domestic player Zero2IPO.
Founder and Chairman Lin Dong said Intohotel would use the investment to quicken domestic expansion before a stock market listing and becoming a global player.
"I hope we can have a major domestic presence in three years and become the world's No.1 brand in this industry in five years," Lin told a press conference in Shanghai.
Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province-based Intohotel, which started signing up companies last year, now has about 5,000 corporate or other non-individual clients.
Lin said Intohotel's travel-management solution could help businesses cut their travel budget by 20 percent. It arranges hotel and airline reservations for companies directly, which prevents employees using receipts with inflated face value to get higher reimbursement.
The company is expected to grab market share from Ctrip.com, China's leading online travel agent, which has only a small part of its business related to corporate clients.
Lin said government would be a key market. Intohotel had already signed some government departments in Hangzhou and the Hangzhou government last month injected 6 million yuan (US$882,353) into Intohotel via a government guidance fund which aims to support innovative companies.
The venture-capital partners will acquire a 25 percent stake in Intohotel.
KPCB has also invested in Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com. Alibaba, also based in Hangzhou, is China's biggest e-commerce company.