Rakuten Travel, the travel branch of Japanese ecommerce company Rakuten, Inc., led the round with a $2.5 million investment. Rakuten, Japan's largest internet shopping mall retailer, also holds a strong investment portfolio of global, high-growth companies. The funding will allow Xola to scale its operations globally and further develop its mobile and web products for enterprise and SMB tour companies.

'Rakuten Travel is excited to partner with Xola and we look forward to supporting Xola's efforts to expand its global market position by providing an easy-to-use booking and marketing platform for diversified travel and tourism businesses,' said Takanobu Yamamoto, Executive Officer for Rakuten Travel.

Launched in 2012, Xola's software fills a vital distribution gap between tour operators and resellers, while driving efficiency and unlocking growth opportunities for companies in dozens of tour and activity markets. Xola's cloud-based, mobile-friendly platform makes it simple for businesses to manage reservations in real time through all channels -- bookings made in-person, over the phone, through their company website, on Xola's vendor mobile app, with local resellers, and via online travel agents integrated with Xola. Known for its sleek design and user-friendliness, Xola saves companies significant time, directly improves customer satisfaction, and accelerates growth.

'Rakuten is an ideal partner, with its global reach and our shared vision of transforming local businesses with powerful software,' said Scott Zimmerman, co-founder and CEO of Xola. 'Together, we will scale Xola to a global market.'

Xola was built from the ground up using an API-driven architecture. It provides a comprehensive set of RESTful, JSON-based APIs boasting a median response time of under 90ms. Coupled with Xola's rich Javascript interface, it provides for an incredibly fast and responsive user experience.

About Xola

Xola provides a comprehensive cloud-based software that makes it simple for businesses to manage reservations in real time from any channel -- bookings made in-person, on Xola vendor mobile apps, over the phone, through their company website, local resellers, and through online travel agents that are integrated with Xola.

Xola was founded in 2011 and has averaged 500% year over year growth over the last two years. Investors include Rakuten, Stanford University StartX Fund, Michael Burry, and Scott and Brett Crosby, co-creators of Google Analytics.

About Rakuten Travel

Rakuten Travel, a division of Rakuten Inc., operates one of Japan's largest online hotel reservation websites. Rakuten Travel provides both leisure and business travelers a variety of accommodation choices to meet all of their travel needs. With offices in 10 countries, Rakuten Travel is rapidly expanding its international operations and is viewable in 7 languages (Japanese, English, French, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, Thai and Bahasa Indonesian).

About Rakuten

Rakuten, Inc. (4755:Tokyo), is one of the world's leading Internet services companies. We provide a variety of products and services for consumers and businesses, with a focus on e-commerce, finance, and digital content. Since 2012, Rakuten has been ranked among the world's 'Top 20 Most Innovative Companies' in Forbes magazine's annual list. Rakuten is expanding worldwide and currently operates throughout Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania. Founded in 1997, Rakuten is headquartered in Tokyo, with over 12,000 employees and partner staff worldwide.