elong-logoIt’s a good time to be a travel-oriented startup. eLong, the Chinese travel giant that’s partially owned by Expedia, said that it plans to create a $100 million fund to invest in startups developing mobile hotel technologies.

“We see an accelerating trend towards mobile hotel bookings, which comprised more than 20% of our hotel room nights in Q2, surpassing our call centers to become our second largest hotel booking channel,” said Guangfu Cui, Chief Executive Officer of eLong. “To capture this great market opportunity, we have moved from an online hotel strategy to a mobile hotel strategy. We are also establishing a U.S. $100 million fund to encourage innovation in this fast-growing area.”

It will be dubbed the Mobile Travel Innovation Fund.

Now, that concept may sound familiar to our readers. As you may recall, Bellevue-based Concur established its own $150 million travel-oriented venture fund last year, calling it The Perfect Trip Fund. With those funds, Concur has invested in startups such as Buuteeq, Room 77; Cleartrip, TaxiMagic and Evature.

[Hat tip to Skift]

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