Online aggregator of budget hotels and homestays, StayZilla has raised over $13 million in a Series C round of funding from existing investors Matrix Partners and Nexus Ventures, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies. The funding round was split into three tranches of $8.8 million (Rs.58.5 crore), $1.9 million (Rs.13 crore) and $2.4 million (Rs.16.3 crore), between November 2015 and March 2016.
The raised funding will be used by the company to improve product and technology and marketing initiatives for the alternate stay business. It previously raised $20 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Matrix Partners in February 2015.
Stayzilla is a platform (website and app) for verified homestays and alternate stays. It has more than 55,000 homestay and alternate stay options across 4000 towns in India. The platform caters to both home owners and travelers looking for differentiated, unique stay experiences. It offers special selective ‘community’ feature on the app that matches hosts and guests by their preferences and shared interests. The firm was founded by Yogendra Vasupal, Sachit Singhi and Rupal Yogendra.
StayZilla competes with budget hotel accommodation service provider Oyo Rooms and online travel agencies (OTAs) including MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Yatra as well as home rental provider Airbnb. The Indian travel market is expected to become worth $40 billion by 2020, as per Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder and chief technology officer of Airbnb.
Three days back, Stayzilla has hired Pankaj Gupta as Chief Product Officer and President of Technology. Pankaj was most recently at Twitter in San Francisco where he joined as an early employee and led the Personalization and Recommendations team. Pankaj will be shifting base from San Francisco to join Stayzilla at their Bengaluru office.
Image Source: ShutterStock