Brazil-based ClickBus, an online booking platform for bus journeys, has secured $10m in series A funding from investors including Tenglemann Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of retailer Tengelmann.
The round also includes participation from corporate-backed venture firm and incubator Rocket Internet, and Latin America Internet Group, a joint venture between Rocket Internet, media and telecommunictaions firm Millicom and Holtzbrink Ventures, the venture capital firm backed by publisher Georg von Holtzbrinck.
The funding came as ClickBus expanded its operations into Turkey and Pakistan. It also operates in Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Thailand and Poland, offering trips that can be booked online to over 8,000 destinations. The company plans to expand into new geographical areas shortly.
Cesário Martins, global co-chief executive and co-founder of ClickBus, said, “This [funding] will allow us to continue our growth trajectory in existing markets and advance our technology, especially in the field of [mobile commerce], where we will launch apps for iOS and Android shortly.
“The new round of funding will also allow us to tackle further markets, which are mostly in the offline realm. Our goal is to move into exactly these markets to enforce the shift from offline to online in the bus industry.”