Loyalty Travel Startup UsingMiles.com Raises $2.7 Million, Names eBags Founder as New CEO

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., April 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- UsingMiles.com, the world's first search engine and management tool for customer loyalty programs such as United Mileage Plus® and Hilton HHonors™, recently closed a $2.7 million Series A round of funding.  Upon closing, eBags.com founder and 10-year CEO, Jon Nordmark, became CEO of UsingMiles.com.

(Logo:   http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110407/LA78848LOGO)

UsingMiles*, a free service for frequent flyers, is currently managing more than 3 billion miles and points for members.

A graduate of the TechStars incubator program in Boulder, Colorado, UsingMiles' founder, Krista Paul, says, "The Series A was led by iSherpa Capital.  The round included strategic investors such as Navin Dimond, CEO of Stonebridge Companies, which owns and operates over 40 hotels, including Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt."

"iSherpa is honored to work with a passionate founder like Krista," says Vipanj Patel, managing partner of iSherpa Capital and Executive Chairman of UsingMiles.com.  "Krista's energy inspires the team," said Patel.  "Krista brought us a blue ocean opportunity to build a very large - yet capital efficient – business."

Nordmark invested in UsingMiles in 2009. Prior to that, as 10-year CEO of eBags, which he founded, eBags became known as a dot-bomb survivor.  eBags grew at a 34% CAGR between 2000 and mid-2008, profitably, while collecting 1.4 million customer-written product reviews.

Nordmark says, "Building meaningful relationships between UsingMiles.com and suppliers inside the travel and financial industries is important to everyone on our team.  Those partnerships will be executed with the same care that we used at eBags, while nurturing 500-plus relationships with luggage and handbag suppliers."  

UsingMiles.com just removed its invite-only status and the site is free to use. The company is hiring PHP and Java web developers in the Denver area.

* UsingMiles.com previously operated under the name TravelFli.

About UsingMiles.com

Travelers can register and create a personal dashboard to manage their loyalty programs and search for airline flights and hotel rooms in The World's First Search Engine for Award Travel.™ UsingMiles.com searches for the lowest cash fares AND award availability for airlines and hotels simultaneously and helps travelers decide whether to use cash or awards on a specific flight or hotel room. The service is free to use and currently manages over 3 billion miles and points! To keep up with UsingMiles.com news, "like" the company on Facebook and "follow" them on Twitter and LinkedIn. Test-drive UsingMiles.com at http://www.usingmiles.com.

SOURCE UsingMiles.com