Travel-tech Startups – The Future of ‘Travel’ in India?

With increasing investments, the travel-tech space is turning out to be lucrative. Here’s why!

Indian travel and tourism sector jumped to 8.5 percent in 2017 from 6.7 percent last year. What’s more interesting is that domestic travel leads the sector, with a staggering 88 percent of the total revenue generated by the travel sector in 2016.

With recent investments in the travel-tech startups, the numbers are going to rise soon. US and India-based ‘Headout Inc’ raised $10 million in a Series A round of funding from investors 'Nexus Venture Partners' and 'Version One Ventures'. ‘Headout Inc’ plans to invest the capital in its inventory and data systems to digitise and standardise last-minute experiences. They specialise in brining tours, activities and attractions for their customers. 'Headout' currently operates in 15 cities across 3 continents, including Paris, New York and Singapore. The firm plans to expand to 100 more cities across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Till now, users only enjoyed services in English, the company has launched services in French, German and Spanish too.

Last year in April, Delhi-based online travel marketplace ‘TripShelf’ raised INR. 1.6 crore from a group of investors in pre-Series A round. ‘Mihuru Pvt. Ltd’ raised $1,50,000 in seed funding from entrepreneurs and high net worth individuals (HNIs). In an around the same time, holiday-packages marketplace ‘TravelTriangle’ secured $12 million in Series C round by growth capital firm ‘The Fundamentum Partnership’. In March this year, corporate travel management firm ‘Tripeur’ raised $600,000 in a pre-series A round led by Japan-based ‘Incubate Fund’.

More Data

‘Goomo’-a travel-tech startup that distributes products and services through online channels raised more than $50 million funding from ‘Emerging India’. They claim that their total transacted value stands at $310 million. It services cater to more than 100K users every week. In the B2B segment, ‘Goomo’ claims to have over 30,000 passengers each week.

Last year in October, the Indian startup ecosystem saw one of the biggest mergers in MakeMyTrip and Ibibo, a deal with an estimate of $720 million. As per a report by Morgan Stanley, the combined valuation stood at $1.8 billion.

A Google India-BCG report says that, the country’s travel market (both online and offline) is expected to become $48 billion within the next three years. As per an India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) report, the total online space is likely to account for 40-50 percent of total transactions by 2020.

Given all the data, the Indian market has alluring opportunities, and the market is likely to become more organised in the near future. The scale of opportunity here is massive, and the travel-tech sector is sure to make a hefty contribution in the startup galaxy of India.