WoVoyage, a travel startup for women, has raised an undisclosed sum of seed funding from Singapore-based investors Shabir Momin and Rohit Nanda, a company statement said. Momin is the co-founder of Zenga Media, an over-the-top digital video platform, while Nanda is a finance professional based in Singapore.

The New Delhi-based startup will use the capital to expand its tech-enabled services and products by developing offerings such as booking services, search and planning platforms, on-demand travel, and recommendation sites, the statement added.

The WoVoyage team

Run by Wovoyage Travel Pvt Ltd, the startup was founded in 2016 by Rashmi Chadha, an entrepreneur who has previously also set up Women Backpackers.

WoVoyage provides risk-free and safe tours for female foreign travelers by teaming them up with women tour guides and helping them design their tours. It offers group departures, recreational activities and concept tours such as photography, rejuvenation, yoga, trekking, cycling, etc. It currently has operations in India and Japan.

“Building a well-established platform, which is a one-stop travel destination, and taking it one notch above every year are my top priorities. We are working on various new developments to make this platform more dynamic and robust,” said Chadha in the statement.

In recent years, as travel has become mainstream and female spaces have moved beyond their negative stereotypes, women-only tour operators have grown strong. From remote camping trips to relaxing at luxurious resorts, these operators provide a plethora of customizable packages to suit different travelling needs.

In an interview to TravHQ last year, Rashmi Chadha spoke about how the big players in the market have just basic packages and deals and don’t do Foreign Independent Tours, which have now become important for customers.

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Guiddoo, the activity booking platform operated by Guiddoo World Travels Pvt Ltd, has raised USD 300K in a Pre-Series A round. The investors include a bunch of individual investors including existing investors- Pawan Borle, Senior Vice President at Fly Dubai and Nirmal Singh, Human resource head, Team Ducab. Guiddoo previously raised an undisclosed amount in 2015 during its seed round.

The company plans to direct the funds towards beefing up the product and technology infrastructure. Along with this, Guiddoo also plans to turn the focus towards building stronger distribution channels for the tours and activities.

Founded in 2014, Guiddoo started as a digital tour guide at the destination. However, last year, it switched focus towards offering activities and experiences. Currently it offers tours from across different destinations provided by an array of providers serving as a metasearch. According to the statement, the company handled over 10,000 customers over the past year registering a 12x growth since the pivot to the current model. Activity booking is estimated to be a major opportunity and there are multiple players, including some of the leading travel booking companies, trying to attract the travellers as they move online.

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Indonesia based motorcycle on-demand company Go-Jek has reportedly closed a new USD 1.2 billion round led by Tencent. Post this investment, the company is valued at USD 3 billion. The development however hasn’t been publically disclosed by the two companies yet and has been reported by TechCrunch citing sources close to the development. An official announcement is expected soon.

(Image: Go-Jek Driver by blogdino/ CC BY 2.0)

There is no information on what other investors have participated in the round though it is expected that they come from the existing pool of stakeholders. Go-Jek previously reported a USD 550 million round in which the funds came from KKR, Warburg Pincus, Farallon Capital and Capital Group Private Markets along with then existing investors Sequoia India, Northstar Group, DST Global, NSI Ventures, Rakuten Ventures and Formation Group. The previous round valued the company close to USD 1.3 billion making it the first Indonesian unicorn startup.

Apart from motorcycle taxi service, Go-Jek operates payment system, food delivery service and courier service. Go-Jek has over 200K drivers across 25 Indonesian cities with 20 million app downloads. Competing against Uber and Singapore based Grab on many fronts, the funds will fuel Go-Jek to aggressively face the rivals. It is also possible that Tencent might explore fresh opportunities in the mobile payment space with Go-Jek by leveraging WeChat.

Source: TechCrunch

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Deyor Camps, the startup aggregating and organising camping activities, has announced raising a pre-series A round led by Venture Catalysts. Existing investor Dheeraj Jain, who has been actively involved in the strategic growth of the company since it started its operations in January 2016, also participated in the round, which also saw participation from other prominent investors such as Dr. Ritesh Malik and Japanese VC firm REAPRA Ventures. 

Founded by Chirag Gupta, Aakaar Gandhi, Himashu Aggarwal, and Gautam Yadav, Deyor Camps has an active inventory of over 600 verified camps and close to 1000 activity vendors spread across 70 locations. In our previous conversation with Deyor Camps co-founder Chirag Gupta, he shared that in order to deliver on customer trust, the team went manually scouting for right vendors for the initial six months before turning focus towards distribution.

Ankush Nijhawan, Co-founder, TBO Group said, “We are glad to be part of the journey of Deyor Camps which we believe will compliment TBO travel portfolio and distribute adventure travel to our large travel agent network.”

At the seed stage, Deyor Camps received investment from ibibo group company Travel Boutique Online (TBO) soon after the launch. TBO has a network of over 20,000 travel agents which is accessible to Deyor Camps as part of the partnership.

Speaking on the investment, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President, Venture Catalysts, said, “As India’s first and only chain of branded adventure camps and accessories, Deyor Camps has addressed the most painful challenges on the supply side by creating a robust distribution channel as well as through strong OTA integrations and networking. It also has a very strong and focussed founding, and is well positioned to take advantage of the exponential growth in the demand for adventure travel as a category leader. Having invested in this high-potential venture, we will now be eagerly tracking its market growth and supporting its operations with our specialised start-up focussed services. We will also be looking to invest in more promising start-ups going forward, as we set about achieving our vision of establishing India as the start-up capital of the world.”

Venture Catalyst has previously been involved in early stage investments across e-tailing and SaaS startups.

Chirag Gupta, Co-founder & CEO, Deyor Camps, commented, “The latest investment gives us the resources to expand quickly and strategically into new locations, innovate rapidly, and deliver on our vision to organize the fragmented adventure travel sector in India. With such illustrious investors on board, we are confident of achieving greater growth and scale in the days to come. We have diluted 5% of our equity to raise investment in this round.”

The team at Deyor Camps

Vikram Bharati, Head of Investments at REAPRA Ventures, added, “The team at Deyor Camps is bold in its vision and passionate about what it does. It is creating and fostering a new industry. We believe that when you take a bunch of young and smart individuals who are passionate about a cause and who don’t care about traditional norms, magic can be created. Deyor Camps envisions inspiring young people to travel and experience the depth and breadth of India through camping. We think this is an admirable vision and we see this being backed up with a solid business model. REAPRA is keen to support a team with a vision and plan like this.”

With this investment, Deyor Camps is looking to ramp up the marketing activities, expand the team and strengthen technology integration. You can read more about Deyor Camps here.

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AirAsia Berhad is acquiring a 50% stake in online travel planner Touristly through an asset injection and loan deal valued at RM11.5 million (approx. USD 2.61 million). With this deal, AirAsia Berhad will inject the digital platform of its Travel 3Sixty inflight magazine (valued at RM6.5 million/USD 1.48 million), into Touristly via AirAsia Investments Ltd and extend a RM5 million (USD 1.48 million) convertible loan to Touristly for working capital and development.

The digital platform comprises the online brand for the Travel 3Sixty inflight magazine, touchpoints on airasia.com and online advertising assets, which will allow the startup to reach AirAsia’s 60 million guests annually. Along with this, Touristly will also gain access to offline advertising assets including the physical inflight magazine, overhead bins and seat trays on AirAsia flights.

On completion of the deal, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes will serve as Chairman of the Board for Touristly. While the startup will gain customers with the reach of AirAsia, the airline will be able to offer a wider array of services and activities such as restaurants, theme parks, attractions, spas and tours at more than 70 destinations that the airline operates to.

Touristly CEO Aaron Sarma said, “​Working with AirAsia has been on our minds since our inception. The insight we can gain from AirAsia’s 15 years in the travel industry will help us better understand the Asia Pacific market and quickly adapt to deliver real value to our customers. Our dream was to help travellers to Asia Pacific find amazing things to do in the region and we’re truly excited about this opportunity to be able to share our platform with more people.”

AirAsia Group CEO Tony ​Fernandes said, “We see enormous potential in Touristly, which perfectly complements AirAsia’s existing travel offering. Our guests will be able to choose from thousands of activities when purchasing a flight and this brings us a step closer to becoming a truly one-stop digital airline.”

Touristly previously raised an undisclosed pre-Series A round from Tune Labs which saw the platform being integrated with several Tune Group companies.

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ScoutMyTrip, the trip planning startup targeted at roadtrip enthusiasts, has received an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Znation Lab. The investment comes through Znation’s investment arm ZNL Growth LLP. The startup plans to put the funds towards expanding the team and adding to the technology features on the platform. Along with this, they will also invest actively in marketing the product through various channels.

Vineet and Deepak, Founders, ScoutMyTrip

Founded by avid travellers Deepak Ananth and Vineet Rajan in March 2016 and launched later in December, ScoutMyTrip allows travellers to put together a thorough plan for their roadtrips offering relevant information at various stages of planning. It allows one to scout for halts, over 10K points of interest, fuel pumps, toilets and hotels. It also offers a large number of ready made trips created by the experts on the platform and other travellers.

ScoutMyTrip fuses together a roadtrip planner and a social channel which means there is an active travel community to help with planning in addition to the available tools. The social element built into ScoutMyTrip also enables brands to leverage it as a medium to connect with travellers, thus opening up a monetisation channel.

The two founders carry leadership experience in various roles. Deepak Ananth, the CEO has been associated with organizations like Tata Communications and Verifone Limited in marketing as well as leadership roles. Vineet Rajan, the CMO at ScoutMyTrip is a marketer with rich content marketing background. He started Indiblogger back in 2007 to mobilise the blogosphere. The duo also actively engages in charity work leading as a part of various motorcycle clubs.

Owing to the improving road network in our country and changing preferences of travellers, there has been an increase in number of people travelling by road over the past few years. This has created significant room for products catering to this segment of travellers. In our earlier conversation with the ScoutMyTrip team, Deepak shared that among the major additions, ScoutMyTrip will soon feature an improved picturesque discovery for attractions and an array of activities across the country. You can read the full story about their journey.

More details about ScoutMyTrip can be found at ScoutMyTrip.com.

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Taking another step in its constant endeavours to catalyse the growth in India’s online travel industry, FICCI recently announced the launch of Travel Tech Launchpad. The objective is to provide a platform that encourages innovation and growth for travel startups. It will be hosted as part of Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit which will offer startups to learn from and network with the experts in the industry. Leading investors have extended their hand to support the platform and share their meaningful inputs to the travel startups showcasing their products. The event is scheduled for March 23, 2017 and here are the industry experts and seasoned investors who will be judging and advising the startup pitches:

Dr. Apoorv Sharma

Dr. Apoorv Sharma is the Co-Founder of Venture Catalysts, India’s first seed investment and innovation platform. He holds a PhD in Incubation and has been involved in early stage investment since 2002. He established almost 10 incubators and accelerators. He was also actively associated in establishing various angel networks across India. Having led and mentored more than 50 early stage investments including OYO Rooms, Confirmtkt among others, he is always on the lookout for the next big idea.

Bhavanipratap Rana

Bhavanipratap is Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners and is responsible for sourcing, making and managing investments in India and Southeast Asia. He is a seasoned venture investor carrying experience of working across different geographies including US, India and Europe helping technology startups in their growth. Prior to Amadeus Capital Partners, he has worked as Investment Director with Intel Capital.

Girish Shivani

Girish Shivani is the Director at YourNest Angel Fund and carries close to two decades of diverse experience in IT consulting, Telecom, Media and Financial Services. YourNest is an investor in Wings Travel which acquired Bookmycab last year. Along with this, YourNest has also got portfolio companies providing marketing solutions and AI technologies. Girish has also worked with some of the leading names like Teradata and Bennett Coleman.

Karan Mohla

Karan Mohla is Executive Director at IDG Ventures India and is leading the India sector strategy in mobile and internet space. He has successfully completed 20 M&A and Capital Market transaction in US and India across sectors including technology, media, telecom, education, cleantech and infrastructure. He also led IDG Ventures India investment in leading OTA Yatra.com.

Manish Kheterpal

Manish Kheterpal is the Founder and Partner at WaterBridge Ventures. WaterBridge Ventures released a USD 15 million fund last year to invest in early stage startups and has got portfolio companies in education domain. A private equity veteran, Manish is interested in startups having technology at their core and carries strong experience of working at senior positions with Providence Equity Partners and Actis Capital LLP prior to starting WaterBridge Ventures.

Mayank Khanduja

Mayank Khanduja is Principal at SAIF Partners and has been investing in young, dynamic tech and mobile startups in India. Travel is among his key interest areas and he is an investor in some of the fast growing travel startups like Travel Triangle, Treebo Hotels and Auto Ninja among other companies. He has also worked with McKinsey and Co. India for five years.

Navin Honagudi

Navin Honagudi is the Investment Director at Kae Capital and invests in early stage companies bringing innovative solutions to fill market gaps. He has invested in areas such as Mobile Internet, Online marketplace, Local Services, SaaS, SMB Tech, Payments and B2B opportunities. Prior to Kae Capital, Navin has been associated with Reliance Ventures and has led investments in PayTM among other companies.

Parag Dhol

Parag Dhol is Managing Director at Inventus Capital Partners and actively works with startups in both India and Silicon Valley. Inventus Capital Partners currently has 27 portfolio companies including transportation companies MoveInSync and Savaari among many other startups in different industries. They were also an investor in Redbus before it was acquired by Naspers. Prior to Inventus Capital Partners, Parag was Associate Director with Intel Capital.

Prerna Bhutani

Prerna Bhutani is Partner at India Quotient identifying ideas and companies that don’t seem popular but hold huge potential. India Quotient has got investment across some popular ecommerce and transportation companies. Prior to India Quotient, Prerna has started and scaled her own businesses and leverages her learnings to help the portfolio companies.

The registrations for Travel Startup Launchpad are open for just few more days and the initiative is supported by brands like Agnitio Consulting LLP, Nucleus Partners and Charson Advisory. Travel Tech Launchpad will be hosted as a part of FICCI Digital Travel, Hospitality and Innovation Summit which is scheduled to be held on March 22 and 23, 2017 in New Delhi. You can find more details here.

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Raising funds is often the most tedious task for anyone looking to set off on an entrepreneurial journey. Building a business requires significant investments and while there is nothing like being able to bootstrap a successful company, investors can add a lot of value. Not only can they offer capital but also bring in their experience and network to the company. During the recently concluded Startup Knockdown+ Pune, we invited Pankaj Mittal, co-founder of Pune Angels and Vivek Nathwani from Mumbai Angels to share their opinions and experience of the investment scenario in India in a session moderated by Daksh Sharma, Founding Partner, TravHQ. Here are the highlights of the session:

(L to R) Pankaj Mittal, Vivek Nathwani and Daksh Sharma

No slowdown at early stage

While the numbers suggest that after an increase in startup investments from 2014 to 2015, there was a decline since last year, the panelists shared the opinion that early stage investors are still open to investing. The difference is because there are less investments at later stage and investors are more careful about the startups they invest in.

Tech is the future but a hard sell

We have only recently started to talk about AI and experts are already calling it the next big thing. This isn’t going to be limited to travel only.

However, Pankaj was quick to point out that the biggest challenge with any new technology is security. People are sceptical to adopt new technologies at first because of potential risks which slows down initial growth. According to him, the ecosystem takes a while to build up and we can’t expect tech adoption like Silicon Valley in India anytime soon.

Team over product

Vivek highlighted that a strong team takes high priority when looking to invest in a startup. There are many factors involved like market size, niche, competition, growth potential among others but the team holds a very important spot. There could be rough times and times when sudden change of direction is required and the right people can pull it off.

Responding to how investors deal with failing startups, he shares that they try to work even closely with the startup in question and help plan the right course of action. They put their trust with the investment and don’t remove the support in tough time.

Traction builds confidence

Investors don’t put their bets at idea stage. Not because they aren’t sure about the potential of the idea but because they are looking to minimise the risk. Which is why they want to see some traction, a reasonable number of early adopters to build the trust.

There is no right time

Speaking about when should a startup look for funds, the panelists shared the opinion that there is no right time. Founders should try to push the event as further away as they can and if possible, survive on own investments. There are other schools of thought but it is just about balancing between the pros and cons of early investment.

Anshoo Gaur, IAN Member and MD of AmDocs also shared some really interesting lessons for young startups during the event. You can read more here.

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Similar to Startup Knockdown Kolkata, the Hyderabad edition of the event also featured some informative panels by experts. Our objective of hosting these discussions and sessions is to help the entrepreneurs make the most out of the event. That is why, we invite experts to share knowledge with them. Sreekanth Perepu, Investment Director at Hyderabad Angels Ventures engaged in a chat about the investment scenario in India and what investors expect from the startups coming to them during the Hyderabad event. Here are the highlights:

Sreekanth Perepu, Investment Director, Hyderabad Angels Network with Daksh Sharma, Co-Founder, TravHQ

Don’t come without a team

This is a fact highlighted by almost all the investors, in travel or otherwise. A smart brain with a good idea is no good if he can’t put together the right team to execute it. That is why it is important to have a strong core team that comprises of people who complement the skills of each other and strongly believe in the idea or product so that they can work together towards realising the common goal. You lose weight from your pitch deck if you don’t have a team to show.

Investors don’t invest in ideas

There is only so much one can judge about a product when it is in the idea stage. According to Sreekanth, investors don’t invest in ideas, they invest in people who have the potential to turn those ideas into a product and eventually into a successful business. Also at the idea stage, you barely have anything to prove your point. That is why it is important to have the numbers to show for the early days.

Never approach investors without a plan

While you expect the investors to support you with your money, they expect you to have a plan on how that money will be used. It is crucial to have details on how the capital will be utilised and what the investor can expect with the next round.

Exit shouldn’t be the primary plan

While laying down the plan, it is good to have a potential exit in place. However, Sreekanth shares that it shouldn’t be the prime objective of any entrepreneur. It is great to have an exit strategy because some businesses can’t grow beyond a certain point but you shouldn’t go out building a travel business just hoping that some major OTA will acquire your product.

Don’t rush into the deal

Finding the right investor shouldn’t just be about the capital. It often gets tough for entrepreneurs looking for investments but that doesn’t mean they should just sign a bad deal. Sreekanth shared how a promising startup offered 40 percent of the company to the investor at seed stage without looking at the consequences. This killed the possibility of a subsequent round, eventually killing the startup, resulting in a failure for both investor and founders. Make sure you take your time to gauge what is on the table and then go ahead with it.

The experts shared lot more interesting stories and actionable insights during the event. If you have a promising travel startup, you can sign up for the upcoming event at startupknockdown.travhq.com. You can find details about the winners of last two events here: Kolkata | Hyderabad.

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Building a business isn’t easy. While it starts with a great idea, the real battle begins only after that. Right from putting together the right team to getting the first customer, the challenges only start to magnify with scale. During the early days, having the right mentor to guide the team could be the difference between a story and a lesson. We got the chance to speak with one such man, who has been instrumental in driving young startups towards success.

Saumyajit Guha, COO, Calcutta Angels Network

Saumyajit Guha, COO of Calcutta Angels Network, has got 15 years of experience with proficiency in Business Incubation & Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development, Market Research & Analysis. Process Migration, Operations and Business Analysis. He has worked with the startup incubators at some of the best educational institutions in India including IIT Kharagpur & IIM Calcutta. He will be hosting a workshop at the upcoming Kolkata edition of Startup Knockdown+. But before the event, he shared some tips for any startups looking to pitch to an investor and his expectations from the startups participating in the upcoming and future editions of Startup Knockdown.

What investors look for

Talking about what an angel investor looks for in a startup while gauging the potential, he put feasibility and scalability high on the list. According to him, “An angel investor doesn’t come on-board just as an investment partner. He or she looks for an idea that is scalable and can get subsequent funding to give the investor a fruitful exit. If the product isn’t scalable, however good it may be, investors won’t be interested.”

He also highlights the importance of a good team with the right mix of enthusiastic and skilled people. He says, “The idea might be scalable but is the team capable enough to scale it up? This is a question most investors would ask themselves before investing in any startup”. When asked about how he gauges the team, he said that a little background check, customer and vendor feedback and the conversations tell enough about them.

Technology is also a major factor for an investor. Crediting the importance of a technology driven business, Saumyajit shares, “In today’s world, if the startup is relying on manual processes and there is no technology involved in it, there is no point starting up.” Generally a tech driven business is easier to scale and thus more interesting for investors. For most investors, these are the major points they look for before getting into the finer points.

Tips for participating startups

Coming to the topic of Startup Knockdown Kolkata, here are some of the tips Saumyajit had to share with the startups:

• Don’t build a business to get funded. It might sound a bit weird coming from an investor but we strongly believe in that. Build a business to do the business and investors will reach out to you.
• Plan your pitch smartly. At times startups spend too much time explaining the problem statement. Any investor listening to you, even the audience, understand the problem statement easily. Instead of stressing too much on the problem statement, it is better to concentrate on how you are addressing the problem and are going to make money out of it.
• Don’t start looking for investment in the idea stage. It is very naïve to look for investment at that stage. At that stage you should look for fund from the three Fs. Friends, Family, Fools. Also, Government, both Central and State, is pumping a lot of money to support very young startups and you should look at them. Majority of the investors will not invest at that stage unless the idea is very unique. If you are talking about something like marketplace, until there is a proof of concept, some initial traction to show, not many will be interested.
• Know how the funds will be used. We have seen examples where the founders plan to spend on a plush office when they clearly don’t need one. You have to be frugal and spend on what is required. If your business allows you to operate from your home with your laptop, you should. I don’t have an office for Calcutta Angels Network because I don’t need one. It is not about how much you can spend but about how well you can manage whatever you have got. If you are pitching and saying that you would get an office, you are not getting my money. If you say that I want to hire a kickass team and build a strong product, you have at least got my interest.
• Invest yourself in the startup. When an investor sees that an entrepreneur has skinned his or her own back in a bid to build the product, he is prepared to trust. Your pitch should portray how much you have worked on the product, how much time and money you have spent and how smartly have you played so far.

New startup hubs in India

Bangalore is undoubtedly the favourite place to start a tech business for many founders. When asked if he has observed new regions emerging as a favourite spot for startups, Saumyajit had a different opinion. He shared, “I have observed a tendency to go with the flow and a ‘me too’ attitude with many startup founders and I often fail to see the reason. You don’t have to be at some specific geographical location to innovate. Just because Uber has an office in a metro city, doesn’t mean you also need an office in the same neighbourhood.”

Adding further to our question, he shared some of his observations. “Entrepreneurs should note that B2B, while not as fancy, is a promising segment. You are in a business to make money. The B2B space offers huge opportunities to make money and lot of investment isn’t required. B2C requires scaling up a lot and that requires heavy investments. The key is to identify the right opportunity. Teams should look at complementing popular businesses instead of competing against them and flooding the market. In travel industry, corporate travel is a promising prospect startups can look at” shared Saumyajit.

Saumyajit will be joining us in Kolkata over the coming weekend for Startup Knockdown. He will be sharing his experience and important tips with the travel startups on how they can build a strong business. Find more details about the event at startupknockdown.travhq.com.

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