MIAMI Despegar.com, an on-line travel site in Ibero-America, has completed a $10.3 million second round of financing, which includes investments from Yahoo! Inc. and Sonae Group, a full-service European communications/Internet company. Also included in the second round financing are additional investments from existing partners, which include Merrill Lynch Global Emerging Markets Partners, Newbridge Andean Partners L.P., and the Accor Group.
The new capital investment will be used for product development, expansion of the IT platform, call centers, and growth of the corporate travel services solution. Based on the company s 25% growth rate per month, Despegar.com expects sales volumes to reach $80 million by the end of the year, with 40% of those sales coming from its corporate travel service, Despegar Corporate. The company expects to turn a positive cash flow by mid-2002. (3/15/01)