Monday, August 22, 2011

Hopper confirms $8M fundraise, Boston move plans

By Rodney H. Brown

Montreal-born travel website Hopper has confirmed reports it has received $8 million in new funding from Atlas Venture and Brightspark Ventures, and is looking to relocate to the Greater Boston area.

In a press release this morning, Hopper verified a report from late June by blogger Scott Kirsner that the company was taking an $8 million round led by Atlas and planning a move south. In the release, Hopper states it is founded former Expedia employees, including CEO Frederic Lalonde, according to his profile on CrunchBase.com.

As part of the new financing, Atlas Venture partner Jeff Fagnan will join the Hopper board of directors.

Hopper said in the release that its a new office in the Boston area will include an engineering team that the company expects to double “over the next year.” Lalonde said in the release that Hopper is “eager to build on the local travel technology expertise that’s centered around MIT and to contribute to Boston’s Big Data community.” To that end, the company is using cluster computing techniques to build what it claims is “the world’s largest database of travel information.” That data would be available through a travel search engine on the Hopper website.

Founded in 2007, Hopper previously raised $2 million in 2008, bringing the company’s total funding to $10 million.