British venue reviews site TrustedPlaces has won a £500,000 investment from the entrepreneurs behind CheapFlights.co.uk, the companies announced this morning.
The London-based guide, which launched early last year, allows users to rate and recommend to fellow browsers places to eat, drink and socialise.
CEO Sokratis Papaflorator scored the financial injection on an angel basis from Howzat, an internet startup investment fund opened by Cheapflights.co.uk founders Hugo Burge and David Soskin in January. Cheapflights.co.uk vice chair Burge will now join the TrustedPlaces board.
TrustedPlaces is one of a raft of sites tapping the social power of the people to pass on useful information on places to go; it also uses a matching algorithm to flag up the places given thumbs-up by friends.
In a statement, Papaflorator said: “Today marks a hugely important day for us. The funding allows us to press ahead with further product development, delivering a truly innovative service.”
Burge added: “TrustedPlaces’ founding-duo are genuine pioneers with an amazing vision of the website they are building. TrustedPlaces exemplifies the type of dotcom we aspire to invest in and it is an honour to be invited to join their team as an investor and as a member of their board.”
Howzat previously invested in the Where Are You Now? travel social network and London property search engine Zoomf.