TravelShark Secures $5 Million in Funding

World’s largest online travel network to continue expansion of content-rich global travel sites and product offerings to hospitality companies and traveling consumers

TravelShark (formerly Swiftrank), the leading global online travel network, today announced that it has closed a $5 million round of financing to further accelerate the company's already impressive revenue growth and global sales since its public launch in 2010. The investment was made by DLA Holdings, a Singapore-based private equity firm. With the recent $5 million investment, TravelShark has raised a total of $8 million to date.

"This additional funding is a nod to the dramatic expansion that TravelShark has achieved in traffic and revenues across its global network of 12,000 travel sites, as well as the tremendous opportunity we have to further accelerate growth," said Sue Heilbronner, CEO of TravelShark. "With this financing, we will invest in sales, marketing, and new product development to leverage our new consumer-friendly brand and our traction with travel suppliers and consumers."

More than 600 hotels, hotel brands, hospitality companies, and interactive marketing agencies in more than 20 countries now participate in TravelShark's Featured Hotel Program to promote global visibility and generate direct booking revenues at an attractive ROI. Featured Hotel partners include Intercontinental Hotels Group, MGM Resorts, Highgate Holdings, TIG Global, and many others.

"We have increased our investment in TravelShark because we are excited about the company's momentum, and we believe that the additional capital will fuel even more rapid growth," said David Leppan, Chairman of DLA Holdings. "TravelShark is providing a new direct online distribution channel to hotels and other travel verticals, and with the new brand in place, the company is looking to extend its offerings beyond travel suppliers to consumers with a host of timely new products."

For more information, please visit http://www.TravelShark.com.

About DLA Holdings is a Singapore-based private equity firm headed by seasoned executive David Leppan. Mr. Leppan founded World-Check, the leading global provider of highly structured risk intelligence, in 2000. In 2011, after four years in which Mr. Leppan served as Chairman, the company was sold to Thomson Reuters in May 2011. DLA Holdings also is the lead investor in Wealth-X, a service-based intelligence tool that connects private wealth managers, luxury brands, not-for-profits and education professionals to 150,000+ ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals around the world.

About TravelShark | TravelShark offers travelers hyper-local, curated content about the world's best destinations along with cutting-edge tools to make travel planning every bit as fun as it should be. TravelShark's newest addition, SharkDive, is the world's most sophisticated recommendation engine, helping travelers discover their unique travel preferences and matching them to personalized vacations. TravelShark will soon launch TravelTypes, an insightful travel typing system to help travelers get a real feel for how they, their friends, and their family travel. TravelShark features hundreds of online city guides, Sharky recommendations for unique and unexpected travel "finds," a home for amazing travel photos on SharkPix, a tool for building shareable itineraries of your last trip, and thousands of content-rich, destination websites. TravelShark is headquartered in Singapore, with a U.S. office in Boulder, Colorado. Make your next trip the perfect expression of you with TravelShark. To learn more, visit www.travelshark.com, or call +1-720-239-1280 or +65 6734 8515.

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TravelShark is the world's largest online travel network, with thousands of location-based travel websites for destinations around the globe. TravelShark connects global travelers with hyper-local travel solutions and memorable trips. TravelShark recently launched the Sharky Awards, recognizing unique and unexpected "finds" in travel, and TravelSharkPix, which allows people to share their favorite trip photos with fellow travelers looking for...