Company: Groople
Description: Group travel web site
Competitors: Triphub
Location: Denver
Amount Raised: $6 million
Round: Second
Date Announced: 8/10/06
VC Firms: ArrowPath Venture Partners, FA Technology Ventures, Vista Ventures, Fatty Tuna, Flywheel Ventures
VC Directors: Jerry Gramaglia, Giri Sekhar
Quick Take: I don't know how big any company that has this disclosure statement 'Groople Inc. is not affiliated with Google' in its tag line can grow to be. Even if Groople can overcome an unoriginal name, it can only thrive by capturing a healthy chunk of the group travel market, which the company says could amount to 30% of the $500 billion overall travel market, that eventually migrates from the offline planning world to the online one. With pressure on one end from Expedia, Yahoo! and Orbitz and on another end from startup rivals such as Tribhub, it won't be easy. Management has done it before and the company's Web site --which is about to be redone-- is more transaction oriented than Triphub's, which are both points in its favor. A profitable exit for Groople is possible with good execution, but something spectacular is a longshot.

Technology (1 out of 10): 3
Market: 4
Management: 7
Chances for IPO: 2
Overall VC Rating: 4

For more on Groople's funding, see:
Groople press release
GigaOm

Tags: groople, travel, triphub, vc, venture+capital