Bangalore-headquartered online ticket booking platform Travelyaari which is owned and operated by Mantis Technologies Pvt Ltd, has raised $3 million in a bridge round of funding led by existing investor GVFL Ltd with participation from some other undisclosed investors. The deal got closed in March, as per DealStreetAsia report.

The company will use the money for its expansion and marketing plans. Around five years ago, GVFL had invested in Travelyaari through its SME Technology Venture Fund.

Travelyaari’s backend system, which is used by more than 1,600 operators for their day-to-day operations, supports annual transaction volume of more than Rs 3,000 crore. Apart from providing online ticketing facility, Mantis Technologies, founded by IIM-Ahmedabad graduates Aurvind Lama and Partha Sinha, also provides technology platforms for bus operators for ticket bookings.

Till date, Travelyaari has raised around Rs 20 crore from Bennett & Coleman and Company Ltd, GVFL and IIM Ahmedabad’s incubator, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). Founded in 2007, Travelyaari started commercial operations in 2008, provides services through its online products like BusCRS, IamGDS, BusTicketBooking API besides Travelyaari. The firm, which has 200 employees, is looking to triple its headcount. As of December 2015, it had a network of more than 2,100 bus service providers with over 1,43,000 bus options per day on 45,000 routes. Travelyaari is also planning to launch cabs and automobile bookings service.

The company competes with the likes of redBus.in, Paytm and Abhibus.com.

GVFL Ltd, earlier Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd, is also plans to raise its eighth fund of Rs 250 crore. It had received market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India‘s (SEBI) approval for the new fund in December last tear. GVFL has managed seven venture capital funds since its inception in 1990. It has backed 83 technology and growth stage companies, according to its website. Till date, the VC firm had made around 60 exits.

Image Source: ShutterStock
Advertisements

Post a Comment

أحدث أقدم
Like this content? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get latest updates.