Indonesian online travel agency Valadoo is merging with community site Burufly, with the new service retaining the Valadoo name.
The Valadoo website relaunched today with new features, some of which it has got from Burufly (which already redirects to its new partner).
Valadoo was created mainly to serve consumers looking for holiday packages in domestic destinations, but now covers other regions in South East Asia.
Burufly, a million-member social community, covered every province in Indonesia with a mixture of user generated content (pictures and videos of the trip) and recommendations.
The new company says it will target travellers between the ages of 18 and 35.
CEO and founder of Burufly, Pete Goldsworthy, says:
"The Valadoo and Burufly brands both resonate particularly strongly with younger, trend-setting, social media savvy Indonesian travelers.
"Joining forces enables us to offer Valadoo’s superb range of travel & lifestyle ecommerce offerings across Burufly’s social traveler network and to allow travelers a channel to share their travel experiences with the community."
Following the merger, Goldsworthy has become chairman of the new business, with Valadoo CEO Jaka Wiradisuria serving as the CEO of the new entity.
Wiradisuria, says:
"I’m particularly pleased by the depth of talent and complementary strengths of the Valadoo and Burufly teams who combined are really an Indonesian online travel dream-team.
"With this team I’m looking forward to revolutionizing the way young Indonesians learn about new destinations, shop for travel and then share their experiences online."
Both Valadoo and Burufly had investors before the merger - Wego had invested in Valadoo; Ardent Capital, Walden International and Batavia Incubator invested in Burufly - but each will remain as shareholders in the new company.
Wego CEO Ross Veitch says:
"I'm confident that the new Valadoo will quickly become a major player in the Indonesian online travel market and the newly merged company will shortly open a new investment round to fund the next phase of this growth."