Travelyaari raises $7 mn in Series-B funding

Aiming to further grow its business and augment its service network, online bus booking platform Travelyaari has raised $7 million in a Series-B round funding led by existing investor Gujarat Venture Finance Limited (GVFL), Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd, (BCCL) and other investors.

The company, owned by Mantis Technologies, will also be using this fund product development and increase online penetration of bus bookings. So far, the company has raised about Rs 20 crore.

Aurvind Lama, the founder of Travelyaari, said, “Our investors unanimously believed in our potential to build a robust, digitalised bus ticketing business model, and the scalability, sustainability, and profitability of the platform have convinced them to fund our vision.”

Founded in 2007, Travelyaari provides real-time, cancellation-proof bookings with timely confirmations and assured refunds. More than 5,000 road travel service providers will be integrated with the platform, along with more channel partners and agents.

Travelyaari targets the middle-class segment across India. Present in more than 8,000 outlets across the country, it has helped many small providers achieve computerisation and streamline their operations.

Presently, the platform has 55% of the overall service provider base on the Mantis system in India, doing business worth $450 million per annum.

Travelyaari has also provided technology solutions for state transport corporations like PUNBUS/ Punjab Roadways and PRTC. It is in talks with other state transport corporations for the adoption of its technology solutions.

The company, which has attained a GMV of about Rs350 crore in FY’15, is currently processing half a billion transactions a day and aims to complete transactions worth $2 billion in the next three years.

The travel market space is dominated by NASDAQ-listed MakeMyTrip, Helion-backed Redbus, AbhiBus, and e-commerce marketplaces like Paytm and Snapdeal which recently forayed into the segment.

What separates Travelyaari from them is its larger offering base with a presence both in B2B and B2C markets.
Rahul Bhutiani, Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd, said, “Organising the unorganised bus operators industry, creating digitalized bus ticket inventory and then leveraging it to run a GDS business as well as a B2C portal is no easy task.

Its success is a testament to the viability of its business model in the Indian market, and gives us confidence as investors to support the company’s continued growth through capital investment.”