Tasmanian web travel site, Travellr (who we’ve covered a couple of times), has announced they’ve received investment from the World Nomads Group (WNG).

WNG have travelinsurancedirect.com.au, worldnomads.com and suresave.com.au as some key brands.

While their bottom line is travel insurance, they provide free travel safety information, free language guides, and other resources for travellers, so it’s not hard to see why Travellr is such a good fit.

I managed to catch up with Travellr co-founder, Ian Cumming, to ask him a few questions about the deal:

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What can you tell me about the deal terms?
World Nomads Group are funding Travellr for two years, and our development team is moving to Sydney to work out of the WNG head office.

What’s the plan going forward?
Our immediate plans are to focus on growth by improving the core service, integrating it with World Nomads Group brands, extending its distribution through a public API and adding real-time functionality to the service.

The long term objective for Travellr is to build partnerships across the travel industry to provide a reputable pool of relevant, accessible travel-knowledge to assist travellers.

So will you be integrating Travellr into the WNG sites, selling travel insurance through Travellr or something else?

The real opportunity here is to tap into the travel knowledge of the customers in the World Nomads Group enhancing both the size and quality of Travellr while adding brand value to their network of sites. We do not believe selling travel insurance on Travellr or a straight advertising model is where the commercial opportunity lies, however we are not at a stage to announce our revenue model yet.

Will you maintain the Travellr branding or are you white-labelling the tech?
We’re still looking at the Travellr branding and how it fits in - but our focus is on Travellr is as a service, not a brand.

And you’ll be leaving your job at Insight4?
I actually decided to quit my management job last December and sold my belongings to work on Travellr full-time. I lived off my savings for six months and couch-surfed around Europe, SE Asia, and North America while working on Travellr from internet cafes and pitching to investors. That experience enormously changed my life and I learned a lot living with just basic necessities - especially the importance of focus!

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Travellr is a good example of how a tech startup can succeed in Australia with the right people, product and support.

Founders Ian Cumming and Scott Woodhouse are two smart guys with a relevant idea and the skills, experience and commitment to make it succeed.

To get to where they are today they received an AusIndustry COMET grant in 2008, were an ANZA Technology ‘Gateway to the US’company and won a wildcard spot for Webciety at CeBITthis year. They also received help on the deal from ANZAtech and Pollenizer.

Congratulations to Scott, Ian and the team. I’m looking forward to seeing how they progress with WNG’s help.