Vacatia, the resort marketplace for vacationing families, today announced it has raised $7 million of new financing in a round that was led by Javelin Venture Partners of San Francisco, CA. Vacatia will use this investment to continue the build-out of its soon-to-be-announced new service, for geographic expansion, and to recruit select new team members.
Vacatia also today announced that co-founder Caroline Shin has been promoted from Chief Operating Officer to Chief Executive Officer.
Ms. Shin is a seasoned travel and hospitality executive with tremendous experience including being the lead website architect on the startup team (and later managing supplier relations) at Hotwire.com. She led global CRM and revenue management functions for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. Ms. Shin was also senior vice president at Sentient Jet, where she oversaw client services and command center operations, and launched a new technology platform for flight management. Ms. Shin holds a degree in Nuclear Engineering from MIT.
'Caroline's mix of travel, consumer, and tech savvy makes her the perfect leader as we seek to create and rapidly improve the first robust marketplace for family resort residences,' said co-founder and former CEO Keith Cox, now Chairman.
It was also announced that Mike Janes is joining Vacatia as Chief Marketing Officer, bringing his extensive marketing, product, e-commerce, and marketplace experience.
Mr. Janes, who advised Vacatia over the past year, previously served as the first CMO of StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, prior to StubHub's acquisition by eBay. He was also the first VP/GM of Apple Computer's online Apple Store, and spent fourteen years at FedEx in a variety of marketing and product development roles, the last four as their first VP of Electronic Commerce (fedex.com) Marketing. Mr. Janes holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.
'The vacation resort industry is incredibly diverse and in a state of transition. The rapid growth of non-hotel accommodations via several popular home- or room-based vacation rental marketplaces shows the consumer demand and market opportunity for a family resort residence solution,' said Noah Doyle, partner at Javelin Venture Partners. 'We believe the timing is right for a customer-focused solution to super-serve families looking for the perfect vacation accommodations, and at the same time help vacation resorts thrive.'
Mr. Doyle is joining the Vacatia Board of Directors, as is travel veteran Steve Hankin, formerly Managing Director of Starwood Capital Group and CMO of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. In addition to Ms. Shin and Mr. Cox, the Board also includes Amy Errett, CEO of Madison-Reed and Robert Spottswood, CEO of Spottswood Companies and a former board member of Hyatt Vacation Ownership.
Completing the Vacatia executive team is co-founder Michael Burns, previously an early executive with the timeshare businesses of both Disney and Marriott. Michael is a Trustee member of the American Resort Development Association and an active member of the ARDA Ethics Committee.
About Vacatia
Vacatia is the resort marketplace for vacationing families. Our sole mission is to help families find the perfect resort residence - their spacious home base for creating fun, shared vacation memories. Vacatia (http://www.vacatia.com) provides search results for dozens of the leading hospitality, timeshare, and premier independent resorts - fully managed and professionally serviced timeshare and resort-condominium complexes combining home-like comforts and delightful amenities. Vacatia, a member of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), is venture-backed, was founded in 2013, and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
About Javelin Venture Partners
Javelin Venture Partners is a venture capital firm based in downtown San Francisco. Established in 2008, Javelin was established by entrepreneurs who have each founded, built, and scaled multiple businesses to highly successful outcomes. Javelin uses that spirit of entrepreneurialism to do early-stage investing, helping the next generation of founders build lasting technology companies.