ViajaNet and Travelmenu raise combined $20.6M

Two international travel sites, one in Brazil and one in Russia, get venture capital approval

Two international-based online travel agencies received a total of $20.6 million in late-stage venture capital today. Here are all the details.

ViajaNet, a Brazil-based online travel agency, announced Wednesday that it has raised $19 million in a growth round led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from General Catalyst.

The site, whose name translates as “TravelNet,” lets consumers set up flight plans, hotels, cruises and entire vacation packages. Though the service initially targeted only the Brazilian market, ViajaNet is now available for all of Latin America.

Founded in late 2009 by Alex Todres and Bob Rossato, in partnership with IG Expansion, ViajaNet sold over $30 million in online fares in 2010.

Going forward, the company expects the volume of fares to keep rising.

Last year, just 14 percent of the $58 billion Latin America travel market was booked online, in stark contrast to regions like the Europe and the U.S., where online bookings make up 30 to 40 percent of the total market. Latin America may be lagging, but ViajaNet says that the online market share there is expected to expand over the next year to over 20 percent.

Today, ViajaNet employs over 120 people. The new funding will be used to improve the website, expand product offering and grow the company further.

Travelmenu, a Russia-based online travel site targeting its home country and the Ukraine, announced Wednesday that it has raised $1.6 million in growth capital from Almaz Capital Partners and Runa Capital, two VC firms based in Russia.

As with ViajaNet, Travelmenu offers a suite of travel products that let consumers find and purchase flights, hotels and “package holidays.”

Package holidays drive the Russian travel market, according to the company, which is offering the trips from 70 package tour operators, including TezTour, Mostravel and Coraltour. In total, Travelmenu provides access to 277,000 hotels and 500 airlines worldwide.