Where Are You Now (WAYN.com) — which is the world’s largest travel and lifestyle social network — announced that they had raised $11 million in Series A venture funding from several different investors including Espirit Capital Partners.
Some of the investors in WAYN.com includes Brent Hoberman, a co-founder of lastminute.com and Constant Tedder, a co-founder and managing director of Jagex (owner of RuneScape, an Internet multi-player game).
In addition to the $11 million in funding, Brent Hoberman will be joining WAYN as a Chairman of the Board in January 2007. Hoberman had lastminute.com taken public in 2000 and was sold to Travelocity for $1.07 billion.
This new round of funding will allow WAYN to expand a team to Poland. The funding will also help WAYN hire a trip planner as well. IT infrastructure enhancements are also expected.
When registering, depending on your username, WAYN almost forces you to import your contact list from that e-mail provider (the skip this step is written in fine print below). I had imported my Gmail contacts.
The registration steps are a bit lengthy. WAYN features a profile picture, a list of trips for you to add, and to build a personal profile which includes eye and hair color, build, height, occupation, education, religion, and ethnic origin. WAYN also has you fill out your favorite films, music, songs, bands, hobbies, and interests.
WAYN has 7 million members as of today and used to have 45,000 users in March 2005. The number of members is growing at 35,000 per day.
WAYN was co-founded by Peter Ward and he stated that “Back in 2002 we recognized the huge potential for a travel community network. Travel captures the imagination and meeting people from different places is something that most of us really enjoy doing. We’re so excited to be working with some of the most respected leaders in their fields. Each investor brings something different and their input in the next phase of our growth will be invaluable.”
WAYN was also founded by Jerome Touze and Mike Lines.
