B2B Traveltech Platform TravClan Raises $2.2 Mn Pre-Series A Round The company aims to empower travel companies to come out on top in the post-pandemic world
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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TravClan—a global business-to-business (B2B) traveltech platform, having grown tenfold since the pandemic hit—on Wednesday announced to have raised $2.2 million in pre-Series A round. The investment round was led by TheVentures, a Korea and Singapore-based venture capital firm, and Leo Capital, who had also led the Seed round in August 2019. The round also saw participation from global and marquee angel investors.
"COVID-19 has severely affected the livelihood of more than 100 million people across the world who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. However, the urge to travel is innate to every human being and we are seeing strong consumer demand as vaccinations pick up. At TravClan, we are rebuilding the entire industry, one travel business at a time. We are humbled by the strong customer adoption and the profound impact we have been able to create in the lives of thousands of travel entrepreneurs usingTravClan daily. This milestone is a result of our entire team's belief and motivates us to continue working harder to empower travel businesses," Arun Bagaria, co-founder and chief executive officer, TravClan.
Technology is playing a crucial role in the revival of travel businesses globally after the industry was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. TravClan has been at the forefront of helping travel businesses leverage technology to earn a livelihood. TravClan is empowering travel agents and new-age travel entrepreneurs to build and grow their travel business online by setting up websites and sell products digitally. It also provides marketing tools that allow its users to generate more demand from social media, and earn more profit by booking flights, hotels, holidays with suppliers across the world at best B2B prices on its platform.
"We partnered with Arun, Chirag and Ashish in August 2019 when the business was growing rapidly before the pandemic hit. The resilience, conviction and ability to grow displayed by the founders at a time when other companies struggled to survive, speaks volumes about the quality of the founding team. With governments globally are driving vaccination at an unprecedented pace, revival in travel is imminent. We are excited about the tremendous opportunity to build a global travel platform that solves challenges faced by millions of travel companies," shared Rajul Garg, founder and managing partner, Leo Capital.
TravClan was co-founded by ArunBagaria, Chirag Agrawal, AshishThapliyal who have previously worked with each other in key leadership roles at OYO, Travel Triangle, and Cars24. From their personal experiences of working in the travel industry, the founders deeply understand the challenges faced by 200,000 plus small and medium travel agents in India. Some of these include generating demand online, sourcing flights, hotel, and holiday bookings at best prices finding reliable on-ground suppliers, and cost-effective payments and credit solutions. TravClan is a global ecosystem for travel and is building an end-to-end operating system for anyone selling travel.
"The travel and hospitality sector accounted for one in four job creations in the world in 2019. TravClan makes it easier than ever before for anyone to start monetizing their passion by selling travel and related experiences to customers. TravClan is expanding the assistance-led travel market as it allows new-age travel advisors and digital travel influencers to start their business in an easy, cost-effective, and digital-first era to meet the demands of the new-age customer. We are strong believers in the business model and excited to partner with the company at this pivotal point," added Chris Kim, partner, TheVentures.
TravClan'svision is to empower SMBs in travel across the world to grow their business. It aims to bring onboard over 10 million SMBs and enable a GMV of over $10 billion by 2025 on its platform. The company has already crossed the pre-COVID revenue and now aims to grow tenfold over the next 12 months.
