More money into meeting and groups as Worktopia raises $5mm

alarm:clock is carrying the story that NY based Worktopia have raised $5mm in funding from DFG Gotham with help from Milestone Venture Partners and High Peaks Venture Partners. That is a quality round of financing. DFG is an offshoot of VC A list company Drapher Fisher Jurvetson. Worktopia offer online meeting room and associated accommodation bookings with about 2,000 properties. Another example along with Groople, asdoo, TripHub and others of the steady flow of capital and interest into the group and MICE markets online. I agree with the conclusion at alarm:clock that 2,000 properties is not enough but with $5mm presumably Worktopia can employ more people in the contracting team.

Worktopia management include CEO John Arenas previously of Stratis Business Centers and EVP Brian McCabe who used to be with Regus.

Groople was first to Group but is now having to innovate to keep up

One of the first companies I blogged about was group booking specialist Groople. In posts on them and other targeted booking providers I have mused about how it will be challenging to obtain and maintain scale focused on a very niche section of the market. Themarket has also become very competitive for group travel with the likes of TripHub also entering the market (here is my interview with John Pope of TripHub).

You will recall that TipHub enables groups of people to share information about about a trip. In a recent announcement Groople are planning similar planning abilities such as clone itineraries, themes for groups and event scheduling. TripHub may have followed Groople into the group market but Groople is now following TripHub into social networking.