For how many of us have dreamt of having their working space in an abode where beaches and jungle would be at a walking distance. Well, this startup boasts a fully fledged dream of an entrepreneur. They left behind the cold harsh winters of Russian mainland and relocated themselves in a balmy summery Thailand island. So how has that worked out for them? Pretty good we guess. Meet Jetradar.

Konstantin Kalinov, The founder

The founder, Konstantin Kalinov, started with his travel blog in the summer of 2007 which focused on discounted items and deals in airlines and showed early signs of success since there were no big wigs from the international market in Russia back then. During his family outing in Thailand next year he became fascinated by the country’s culture and affirmed to escape the cold north to set up his office in Phuket. He moved the entire family and a close knit off 5 people to Phuket to open their office. The advantages were huge. Firstly, the market was pouring in with the best talent he could procure and secondly Thailand was an untapped market with no compelling travel service in far sight.

In 2011, Max Kraynov who spent more than a decade in senior management roles in mobile startups joined Konstantin as the CEO and partner of the company. In 2013, almost 2 million tickets were found through Avaisales which were subsequently bought resulting in the gross booking of $400 million. The current sales touch around 3.5 million tickets a year. The same year saw the Thai version of the website launch and in 2015, Jetradar hybrid meta-OTA product was launched in Thailand.

Max Kraynov, CEO

Jetradar sees to two set of groups: just about any traveller who wants to find a quick way to reasonably less expensive airfare or a hotel and the second group being anyone who wants to monetize their business and traffic through their website. They do this with a special affiliate program that gives an opportunity to anyone from travel bloggers to travel portals to monetize the traffic. They have a dedicated team that works with Travelpayouts.com as their partner solution. As a default, they share 60% of their profit per booking to affiliate. They have an open platform where one can use widgets, search forms, tracking links and such other stuff once the user registers. Over 70,000 users are on a roll over the affiliate program from 2011 and have received over $6 million in payouts.

The team

The startup works on a CPA model with their partners in airlines and travel agencies. It focuses their work on bringing high-quality to traffic to search results in order to get a better income in case if you compare it to CPC, where traffic quality can be sacrificed. Also, more importantly, their mobile marketing team comprises of 30 people making it one of the biggest in the East-European market which speaks volume that they understand the impact mobile is making especially in Southeast Asia. This special hybrid model for the Asian market where the OTA being  only half a year old, gave them a  great advantage in terms of conversion to paid bookings, especially on mobile, where the majority of Asian airlines and agencies struggling to bring proper UI / UX. Even international competitors admit that that Jetradar’s conversion is industry best in Asia.

They had launched their mobile app in 2012 which generated 10 million downloads till date with 1 million touching in the first 10 months. They rose $10 million from iTech Capital in 2014 for a minority stake in the company.

So, this International team of 130+ colleagues, friends and neighbours working from Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Hong Kong, Australia, all focused on making travel easier and better have found their home in the paradise island. Winter sure isn’t coming.

To know more about their culture log on to Jetradar.com and download their apps at iTunes and Google Play Store here.

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Thailand is a popular tourist destination but it’s rapidly turning into a dynamic business spot. It has a low cost of living, offers a variety of food at low rates, provides many co-working spaces and is well connected with 6 International airports with low-cost carriers.

Observing the vast travel market opportunities in Thailand, many travel startups have come into existence in the past few years. We have listed a few of them below:

#1 JetRadar

Founded by Konstantin Kalinov in 2012, JetRadar is a multi-lingual travel search engine for flights, hotels and cars. It helps travellers spend more on stunning experiences and less on airfare prices. As a business, it is associated with 535 airline and 35 travel agencies worldwide. It is active in 14 international markets including Germany, USA and Australia. The speciality of JetRadar is that it has a useful filter called ‘ECO-Rank’. With the help of it, the flights are ranked according to the aviation emissions, traffic forecasts and aircraft range. Travellers who believe in protecting the environment can use this brand for an ecologically friendly flight to their destinations.

Languages: English, Deutsch, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian.

#2 Coin ⇆ Back

Founded by Naoe Miyata and Jasnam Sachathep in 2014, Coin ⇌ Back is a travel brand that is truly one of a kind! The brand has come up with an innovative solution for getting rid of left-over coins and simultaneously making donations. The brand places kiosks in convenient places such as departure halls of the airports, hotels, malls and other public areas. The interested travellers will be requested to insert their coins in the kiosks. After carefully following a 3-step process, they will be able to contribute their money for some noble cause. They will be able to keep a track of their donations through the official website and social media channels. For more details on how to make the donation, click here.

Languages: English

#3 Tourkrub

Founded by Jakapan Leeathiwat, Xinming Zhao and Poomphat Techapoopon in 2013, Tourkrub helps travellers find the best travel packages as per their requirements. It is specially designed for travel agents and tour operators as it is a great marketing and easily manageable tool available at an extremely low-cost. The travellers can do a filter search and book the best deals on this travel platform.

Languages: Thai

#4 Wongnai

Founded by Yod Chinsupakul in 2011, Wongnai is often called as Thailand’s ‘Yelp’. It lists a number of amazing restaurants by categories, locations and markets. Travellers who do not have much idea about the best restaurants of the cities can use its ‘Guide’ category. It is one of the leading food review sites in Thailand with thousands of members.

Languages: Thai

 #5 TakeMeTour

Founded by Taro and Noppon last year, TakeMeTour offers hundreds of one day trips which help you experience the authentic taste of Thailand with locals. It is one of the largest marketplace in Thailand, having around 5125 active local experts associated with them. For the convenience of travellers, reviews and stories are shared on the website that further helps travellers pick the day trips of their choice. For more details, click here.

Languages: English

#6 Tripnii

Founded in 2012, Tripnii is a hotel aggregator that allows travellers to find and book hotels in Thailand at their desired prices. The travellers can easily select what they want and book hotels at best rates without surfing on multiple websites. It has hotels of several popular tourist destinations like Bangkok, Hua Hin and Pattaya listed on the website.

Languages: English, Thai

#7 Ithaka

Founded by Ameya Sahasrabudhe and Rahul Singh in this year, Ithaka aims to be a free personal travel assistant that enables travellers to explore the beauty of Thailand and provides the best advice in real time with the help of the local experts. It serves two groups of travellers: a) The travellers planning a trip to Thailand b) Travellers already in Thailand and looking for expert advice. Currently, it is razor-focused on providing a world-class experience for the country. For more details, read our article here.

Languages: English

Are there any other innovative travel startups that you would like us to feature in our article? Do share with us.

Also Read: Travel sprint: Our pick of Japan’s 10 coolest travel startups

Travel sprint:Our pick of Honk Kong’s 10 coolest travel startups

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