August & September are turning out to be exciting months for funding deals in the Indian travel startup arena.

$10 million funding for GoFro (September 2017)

Earlier in the month, Holiday marketplace GoFro had received $10 million in funding from Japanese major H.I.S. Co., Ltd., a travel agency with its HQ in Tokyo and India’s largest OTA MakeMyTrip. To read more, visit this link. The company plans to utilize these funds by building its tech platform, expansion to new geographies and growing its supply and agent network.

Multiple rounds of funding for Hotel aggregator OYO (September 2017)

Budget hotel startup OYO followed its initial $250-million funding round with an additional $10 million in funding from Chinese hotel management firm China Lodging Group. Learn more here. Earlier in September, OYO had raised $250 million from SoftBank Vision Fund including a new investor, Sunil Munjal-led Hero Enterprise. More on that here.

Treebo snaps up 226 crore (August 2017)

Right at the end of August 2017, budget hotel chain Treebo’s parent company Ruptub Solutions, had raised $34 million (about Rs 226 crore) in fresh round of funding. The Series C funding comes more than a year after Treebo had secured 112cr in Series B funding. Hong Kong-based hedge funds Ward Ferry Management and Karst Peak Capital have led the current round. More on Treebo funding here.

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GoFro, the online travel marketplace targeted at offering leisure travellers with travel packages, announced the completion of a year of operations. Launched in June last year by former Snapdeal CTO Amitabh Misra, GoFro has been quick to expand partnerships and bring over 100 suppliers on the platform to offer a smoother holiday booking experience without many of the challenges that have conventionally troubled players in this space.

GoFro shared through a statement that over this year, the platform successfully catered to over 10,000 customers. Squarely targeting the outbound travel market, the young company is trying to be the go-to place for holiday booking. It is doing that by making products from all the suppliers readily available in a place for the travellers while opening up new distribution channel for the suppliers.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Amitabh Misra, Founder, GoFro said, “Looking back I see a great first year as people welcomed our vision of creating India’s first travel marketplace. Serving so many travellers in such a short span has only been possible because of all our travel partners and their immense support. I am thankful to the GoFro team, our partners and most importantly the local advisors who make sure that our traveller’s trips stay memorable. It is just the beginning of this journey and there is much more to come. We will continue adding more travel partners and destinations to serve every Indian traveller and in next one year, we aim to serve more than 50,000 travellers with a network of 1000+ travel advisors.”

Bonavita Technologies, the parent company of GoFro is backed by MakeMyTrip. While the holiday package segment is complex, it has attracted players of all sizes to tap into the changing behaviour of travellers. With increasing activity, GoFro finds itself an interesting spot in the purchase chain. You can find more details at gofro.com.

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GoFro, the online travel marketplace targeted at providing leisure travellers with travel packages, has partnered with multiple leading travel industry players. With the new partnerships, GoFro is looking to offer a wider array of products which the buyers can browse and choose from, without having to skip through multiple websites or apps. The partners include companies like Thomas Cook, Yatra, MakeMyTrip, Paras Holidays, Contiki, Byond Travel, Flamingo Transworld Pvt. Ltd., Guidelines Travels and many more. Being associated with all leading tour operators, GoFro aims to become the one stop destination for anyone looking for a travel package.

This move will not only help the customers make a more informed decision but also open up a new channel for the partners. Some of the partners are limited in their online reach or their geographical popularity and the association could enable them to reach newer set of customers.

Speaking on the announcement, Mr. Amitabh Misra, Founder, GoFro said, “It is another big step by GoFro to become India’s first and largest travel marketplace. It will change the whole ecosystem which is currently very fragmented. Now the power lies in the hands of the consumer, they don’t have to spend lot of time visiting different websites and travel agents, they can simply visit GoFro, compare packages by all the travel agents. Booking a travel package will be as simple as booking a flight ticket from any flight aggregator. It will also help travel companies to understand the consumer in competitive markets and offer best deals to acquire new customers.”

One of Travel partners, Vikram Ahuja, Founder & CEO, Byond Travel “GoFro has drastically simplified the customer purchase process and at Byond Travel we are very excited to partner with them to help reach our potential customers with exactly the kind of information they need in the most convenient manner”

Started in June 2016, GoFro has been gaining momentum quickly. Starting with a handful of destinations, it currently offers travel packages for over 70 destinations from over 200 tour operators. The parent company of GoFro, Bonavita Technologies Private Limited is backed by MakeMyTrip. More details at GoFro.com.

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