Yanolja, a Korean leisure booking platform that lays claim to being the only player with an API link to Ctrip, has injected US$15 million into ZEN Rooms.
ZEN Rooms is an economy hotel chain and online booking platform 
operating in the South-east Asian market. The new partnership gives Yanolja the option to acquire 100 percent of ZEN Rooms in the future.
“ZEN Rooms has built a very impressive business and team within a short timeframe, and we are excited to start our collaboration. Starting with this strategic investment into ZEN Rooms, we shall seek to expand to become the most affordable hotel chain and first fully integrated booking platform for leisure activities as well as hotels, going beyond the domestic domain to around the globe,” said Jong-yoon Kim, Vice President, Yanolja.
“ZEN Rooms’ mission is to provide quality economy accommodation to travellers across South-east Asia and help our hotel partners maximise their business potential…we are delighted to join forces with Yanolja to fulfill this mission,” said Kiren Tanna, co-founder of ZEN Rooms.
Yanolja, Inc. “is evolving into a global REST (Rest, Entertain, Stay and Travel) platform company”. In March 2018, it formed an exclusive partnership with Japan’s largest OTA Rakuten LIFULL STAY.
A Bloomberg profile report published in November 2017 said Yanolja was valued at as much as 600 billion won ($547 million) and that year drew 60 billion won in investment from Chin Dae-je, a former CEO of Samsung Electronics Co. and technology minister. The report also stated that the app posted revenues of 68 billion won in 2016 and is seeking an initial public share sale as early as 2020.
