Planning a trip is tough and planning an international trip is even tougher. From finding best ticket prices to putting together the itinerary with whatever is available, there is quite a lot to handle. And next comes forex and visa. There is no dearth of points where one can change their currency but they range from “Why is he giving me so little for my money” to “Is this guy even legally allowed to do this” and all this can get really overwhelming for someone taking his first international trip.

YuMiGo team at their launch event in Delhi

YuMiGo is trying to simplify ticking off some items from one’s pre-trip checklist with an array of services for international travellers. They are offering forex, international SIM cards, travel insurance and assistance with the visa process, all in a single place with a very strong focus on keeping the process as simple as possible.

Over the past year or two, we have seen many startups entering the travel space with products to simplify the process of buying and selling forex. However, from my personal experience with two of them for helping a colleague, I can share that they either require one to fill too many forms or deal with multiple phone calls. They have certainly made it easier to trust the providers by verifying them and making more information available online, but the process is still not as smooth as it should be. At first look, the mobile interface of YuMiGo looks much simpler (and doesn’t require phone calls). They also provide doorstep delivery on weekends, something the other platforms we are aware of don’t offer. The ability to transact right there and anyday doorstep delivery certainly gives them an edge and would not only simplify the job for a first time traveller but also speed up the process for a frequent flier.

Pratyush Kukreja, co-founder, YuMiGo

International SIM is another obvious requirement if one is travelling for more than a day or two. YuMiGo saves one from the hassle of looking up options or the risk of getting stuck with a costly postpaid international roaming plan and delivers prepaid SIM cards to travellers before they leave.

Rishabh Sood, co-founder at YuMiGo, says, “I realized how frustrating it gets to plan a trip abroad because a traveller has to engage with multiple service providers for getting a visa done, buying foreign currency or a calling card and figuring out the right travel insurance. We came up with the idea of not just helping out a traveller, but also creating a systematic honest search that will not leave a traveller swindled.”

He also highlighted that travel insurance is an area where travellers lack information. According to him, the objective behind offering travel insurance on YuMiGo is not only to sell insurance to the travellers but also to educate them on why it is important. Offering travel insurance on the same platform with other services would allow them to achieve the same.

Rishabh Sood, co-founder, YuMiGo

YuMiGo has been in beta for almost a year now during which the team has been generating data on usage patterns to fine tune the experience. The official launch was announced over the weekend during a dinner evening hosted in Delhi. Co-founded by Rishabh Sood and Pratyush Kukreja, it is their second venture together. The duo is joined by Anirudh Rastogi, a Harvard Law School graduate, to advise them on regulations in forex and other services; and Arun Arya, who has previously worked on mobile apps for large enterprises like IRCTC and several startups, as product lead.

YuMiGo has raised USD 300K in its first round of funding from Hemant Sahni, a seasoned businessman who saw potential in the venture. Going forward, YuMiGo plans to add more services for travel inspiration and in-destination engagement add value for the traveller.

While there are providers for some of these services in the market already, none of them is offering them in one place. This would simplify the discovery process for travellers while allowing for better engagement on the platform. To make it a more attractive proposition for frequent travellers, they have also introduced loyalty programs and will be offering tailor made plans for corporate customers.

You can find more details about YuMiGo at www.yumigo.com.

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Financial technology has been a booming sector for some time now. A decade ago, this seemed like a nearly taxing situation where travelling abroad continued to be a headache because of the stringent methods of foreign exchange brokers. That’s a yesteryears’ story. This millennium saw forex process in the smoothest possible way. Foreign exchange start-ups have cropped over entire SEA making the entire procedure a hassle free experience. Here’s a list of few of the forex startups that one should definitely keep in mind while looking for best possible exchange rates.

FXKart

FXKart is a marketplace of exchanging currency facilitating foreign exchange rates to the forex customers. FxKart presents some best online forex services in India along with the cheapest money conversion rates for INR to foreign currency conversions. Their services comprise of providing travel cards, foreign currency notes, and simplifying card transactions at the point of sales (POS) as well as cash withdrawals.

CurrencyKart

CurrencyKart is a marketplace for money changers and travellers which endeavour to provide a set of Forex solutions including Pre-Paid Forex Cards, Travellers Cheques, Foreign Currencies, and Demand Drafts. The portal doesn’t levy any fees and presents the rates that are offered by the dealers in real-time.

CurrenSeek

It is a location based driven community that assists travellers to find out which money changers or banks offer the best exchange rates near them. The app uses popular mapping apps like Google Maps and Waze for offering navigational support. To assist other users of CurrenSeek, travellers can even write reviews about any currency exchange facility.

Bookmyforex

Bookmyforex brings live rates to the travellers provided by the mid-market and inter-bank. The portal facilitates to lock the rates for as much as 3 days and notifies when rates reach the level you want.

Get4x

The platform Get4x gives the rates and places around a traveller to exchange currencies.It puts the choice of all options directly in the hands of the user. Instead of a tightly controlled and opaque process, the user is able to view all exchange rates offered by licensed money changers listed on Get4x app and thus has more options to choose from; resulting in the best rate they can possibly get.

Could you think of more? Let us know.

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Naspers backed B2B travel portal Travel Boutique Online (TBO) has partnered with Fxkart.com to enable the agents of TBO to easily book foreign exchange seamlessly. Fxkart.com is a marketplace of foreign exchange dealers that allows for travellers to book forex easily. With multiple forex dealers competing against each other, travellers get the best deals without any hassles. TBO has 19,000 travel agents on the platform and they will be able to gain from this partnership.

Mr. Ankush Nijhawan, Co-Founder, TBO Group said, “Fxkart.com is one of the most promising startups in the fin-tech sector. With foreign exchange being one of the biggest pain points for the travel agent, this would be a shot in the arm to seamlessly book forex on the portal and servicing the customer at the lowest rates.”

Despite the increase in size of online travel market in India, the offline players continue to hold a strong share of the huge market. This offline market is driven by travel agents and platforms like TBO allow them to offer competitive prices to the travellers. With this partnership in place, the job of these travel agents will be simplified resulting in better experience for their customers.

On this occasion, Mr. Abdul Hadi Shaikh, CEO Fxkart.com said, “We are happy to be on the platform as it gives us an instant reach to service travel agents who trust TBO across India with the help of technology.”

Fxkart was the winner of our very first Travel Startup Knockdown hosted in association with OTM Mumbai. Startup Knockdown is back, this time with lot more opportunities for the participants. Find more details at startupknockdown.travhq.com.

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4xLabs is a financial tech startup that has expanded its regional operations to India with the official launch of its currency aggregator app, Get4x in Mumbai. This GPS supported app that was first launched in Singapore, allow travellers to search for the best forex rate being offered by money changers in cities of Bangkok, Hong Kong and Singapore.

“We’ve had a lot of user requests to expand to more cities. Mumbai was a top choice as it’s the financial hub ofIndia. According to a recent survey, it is among the 20 most popular cities for tourists with 4.6 million overnight visitors,” said Julien Labruyere, founder and CEO of 4xLabs.

While there are other currency aggregators in India who operate on a bidding model Get4x is different. It puts the traveller in power by offering the best real exchange rates as they work with money changers and help them make an informed decision on where to best exchange money from. Other portals extend limited offers and the travellers get bound by the choice.

Get4x benefits money changers too. They can reach out directly to confirm rates and arrange for delivery. The company has developed a product for money changers too called Biz4x, that provide live forex rates, management software and compliance service. The lab would push a paper soon highlighting the importance of compliance with local regulations so that the business can safeguard their venture.

“We have seen phenomenal growth in the adoption of Biz4x. Within 6 months, we have onboard 30% of the money changer market,” said Mr Labruyere.

Through Biz4x, money changers can enter their live rates for Get4x and receive customer currency orders. In cases where money changers have not updated their rates, Get4x displays an indicative foreign exchange rate that is derived from an algorithm based on real and historical data.

Get4x is rapidly expanding to new cities and will be available in Bali, Kuala Lumpur, Pattaya and Phuket next month.

Get the app here for iOS and Android, and an online access at get4x.com.

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