Adventure Central Closes Series B Funding of $3.5 million

10 January 2007
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Prominent Silicon Valley firm Allegis Capital leads round to fuel accelerated growth and development

Denver, CO – Adventure Central, the leader in providing online booking and travel inventory management services for adventure tour operators, today announced that it had closed a Series B financing worth $3.5 million. Palo Alto-based Allegis Capital led the round, with current Denver-based Adventure Central investors Wolf Ventures and Advantage Capital Partners also contributing to the funding.

“The high demand for adventure and experiential travel and the emergence of the Internet as a key method for finding and booking adventure travel are important trends that we strongly believe in,” says Pete Bodine, Managing Partner of Allegis Capital. “We are very excited about our involvement with the Adventure Central team and what they have accomplished to date in connecting tour operators with their customers. We believe Adventure Central is pioneering a business model that will lead to significant growth and value.”

The investment will be used to accelerate Adventure Central’s growth, enhance product development, and expand sales and marketing efforts. The new funding follows a very successful 2006 as the company now has more than 40 customers, and to date has powered more than $7 million and 11,000 booking transactions on behalf of its customers.

“This investment is further validation of our leadership position in providing valuable solutions to our customers—adventure and experiential travel operators—that enable them to grow and run their businesses better,” says Adventure Central’s CEO, Dick Schulte. “We’re delighted to have the support of Allegis Capital, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, as well as the continued support of Wolf Ventures and Advantage Capital. The funding provided in this round gives us the depth and breadth to serve our customers even better and take our business to the next level.”

Schulte says Adventure Central will use the funding to add new employees in sales, customer support, and software development. Additionally, some leadership positions will be added. Mr. Bodine from Allegis will join the Adventure Central board—a board that already includes travel industry leaders such as Richard Bangs, Steve Murch and Mickey Lutz.

“Adventure Central is addressing the biggest issue for thousands of tour operators, which is, ‘How do I grow my business faster and manage it better?’” adds Jim Conboy, Partner with Wolf Ventures. “Adventure Central’s ability to drive faster growth via online distribution for tour operators is superior to any other solution in the market. It is a privilege for us to continue to partner with such an impressive team on an opportunity of this magnitude.”

About Adventure Central
Based in Denver, CO, Adventure Central is the leader in providing critical business services to adventure and experiential tour operators. The company offers a robust online booking and travel inventory management solution to tour operators, delivering new, powerful and cost-effective tools that enable operators to grow revenues, attract and retain customers, and reduce operational costs. For more information on Adventure Central, call 303.292.5522 or visit www.adventurecentral.com.

About Allegis Capital
Allegis Capital, based in Palo Alto, CA, is a seed and early-stage venture capital firm with over $700M under active management and an investment focus on enabling technologies and infrastructure in information technology and the Digital Economy. Allegis combines the extensive operating and venture investment experience of its partners in working with entrepreneurs to build successful businesses in network communications and enterprise solutions as well as digital media, electronic commerce and Internet infrastructure technologies. For more information, please visit www.allegiscapital.com.

About Wolf Ventures
Wolf Ventures is a Denver-based venture capital firm focused on early and development-stage funding for emerging, high growth technology companies. Since 1995, Wolf has emphasized investments in information technology, communications technology, new media, and medical devices/diagnostics. For more information, please visit www.wolfventures.com.

About Advantage Capital Partners
Advantage Capital Partners (www.advantagecap.com) is a private equity firm focused on investing in promising companies in connection with federal, state and local economic development efforts. With offices and partners in New Orleans, St. Louis, New York, Washington, D.C., Austin, Denver, Madison and Huntsville, Advantage has raised more than $750 million in institutional venture capital since 1992 and invested in companies located in geographic areas underserved by traditional venture capital.

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