• By
  • Lizette Chapman

Travel search site Hipmunk Inc. has raised a $20 million growth round from Oak Investment Partners and existing investors.

Bloomberg News

Like larger competitors Skyscanner Ltd., TripAdvisor Inc. and Priceline.com Inc.’s Kayak, Hipmunk allows travelers to search for flights and hotel rooms and earns a commission on traffic it sends to aggregators like Orbitz and Expedia.

The Series C infusion pushes total outside backing to $40 million for the four-year-old company.

“It was a medium-sized valuation,” Hipmunk co-founder and Chief Executive Adam Goldstein said, declining to provide a number. “Some silly things can happen when you optimize for valuation.”

Mr. Goldstein said he targeted a select few venture firms with experience helping consumer travel companies scale.

Oak Investment Partners, which previously backed Kayak, impressed him, and he personally clicked with General Partner Ren Rile. Mr. Riley joins Hipmunk’s board.

The round will be used to hire another two dozen employees, mostly engineers, during the next 12 months. Plans also call for developing across multiple desktop and mobile platforms and striking partnerships. Mr. Goldstein declined to elaborate.

He confirmed the entire $20 million would go to the company and not to provide liquidity to early employees or shareholders.

Existing investors Institutional Venture Partners, Ignition Partners and unnamed individual investors also participated.

Based in San Francisco, Hipmunk currently employs 43.
