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Hotel Site Oktogo to Rebrand as One-Stop Travel Shop

By The Moscow Times

Hotel-booking site Oktogo is rebranding as Travel.ru and will establish itself as a one-stop shop, integrating travel commerce with information, TechCrunch.com reported Friday.

The move follows Oktogo's $2 million acquisition in September of the travel portal, Travel.ru, under whose name the rebrand will be carried out.

Total funding for the rebrand and development of the new business strategy stands at $31 million, including a $5 million investment by VEB Innovations. Other backers include Mangrove, Ventech and VTB.

Russia is one of the largest markets for internet services in Europe by user numbers, while analysts PhoCusWright value the Russian online travel market at $10 billion in 2013.

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