Back in December, travel startup Trazzler told us it had raised $750,000 from an “all-star team of angel investors”—but wouldn’t say who they were. CEO Adam Rugel now tells us the names and “all-star” they are. That cash, along with funding the company has subsequently raised, came from AOL (NYSE:…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has made its second iGoogle-related acquisition in less than a month, buying up small online travel site Ruba, which features photo-centric guides to various locations, all contributed by users. TechCrunch, which confirmed the acquisition with Google, says Ruba will now be integrated into iGoogle in some way.…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) may be about to make its entry into the travel search market—but not quite in the way people expected. Rather than buy a travel search engine directly—like Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) did when it bought Farecast or Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) did with FareChase—Google is reportedly interested in buying…

Travel search engine Kayak has sold hotel information site TravelPost to an online travel startup founded by several former Expedia employees, which for now is going by the name NewTravelco. Travel tech news site Tnooz—which first reported the deal—says that as part of the transaction, Kayak is taking a stake…

TripIt, which offers a series of online tools that travelers can use to organize their travel plans, has raised $7 million in a funding round. With TripIt, users e-mail in their itineraries and then have TripIt organize them into a single “master travel itinerary” that they can easily share and…

EveryScape, which provides “eye-level” images of major towns and cities around the world, has raised $6 million in a third round of funding. The company charges local businesses in order to build 3D, photo-realistic panoramas of their physical locations which are then featured on EveryScape.com and can also be embedded…

Travel site Trazzler has raised $750,000 in funding, according to an SEC filing. The company features short recommendations of things to do in cities around the world. Conceptually, it sounds similar to Nextstop, a travel review site launched by several Google (NSDQ: GOOG) alums earlier this year, which also features…

Back in mid-September, Oyster Hotel Reviews said it was on track to become the largest travel media outlet in the U.S. by staffers by year-end. Desn’t look like that’s going to happen. The startup—which features original reviews of top hotels on its website—has laid off a third of its staff.…

Panraven, a startup which offers an online “story-telling” service, has raised $2.725 million in funding, according to an SEC filing. The company lets users arrange photos, text, content, and video online and then share their creations using social networking tools; users can also order hardback copies of their compilations. The…

Lots of activity in China’s burgeoning online travel industry. Travel search engine Qunar has raised $15 million in funding in a round led by GGV Capital. Mayfield Fund, GSR Ventures, and Tenaya Capital also participated in the round, according to investment research firm JLM Pacific Epoch, which cites local media…

Everlater, a startup that lets users set up online travel scrapbooks, has raised a first round of funding led by Highway 12 Ventures; the company isn’t saying how much it raised. With Everlater, users designate the origin and destination of a trip and then can add text, photos, and videos…

Hoping to tap into the booming Chinese tourism market, Expedia-owned travel review site TripAdvisor is making a big push in the country. TripAdvisor is buying up Kuxun.cn, China’s second largest travel-related site, after Ctrip.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although investment research firm JLM Pacific Epoch cites local…

With ski season just ahead, discount ski ticketing site Liftopia has raised $1 million in a second round of funding led by former Expedia CEO Erik Blachford and Amicus Capital. Sand Hill Angels, North Bay Angels, along with individual angel investors also participated, co-founder Ron Schneidermann tells us. Liftopia lets…

Oyster.com—a three-month-old hotel reviews site—has raised $4 million in funding from Bain Capital. Oyster has a staff of 20 reporters who write lengthy reviews and also take photographs of hotels (See this review of Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, for instance). The company says that it currently…

Ticket search engine FanSnap has raised $5 million from Highland Capital Partners. Via its search engine—which exited beta testing in March—users type the name of a live event and then find a range of available tickets culled from various ticket providers which they can then buy. Results are centered around…