Online customised holiday platform TripFactory bags funding from Infosys veteran Mohandas Pai
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The global travel industry trends are shaping the future of travel industry and customization forms the core of the offerings in the Indian travel industry. The overseas travel industry for leisure is growing at a CAGR of 40 per cent year-on-year. On the other hand, the leisure travel market in India at present stands about $80 billion annually, which is set to reach $150 billion in size by 2024.
With customization at the core of its offerings, Bengaluru-based travel start-up TripFactory.com was launched in 2014 by ex-Via founders Vinay Gupta and Amit Aggarwal. The start-up has already sold around 4,000 holidays with a gross value of over $2 million in its first year of operations.
TripFactory.com announced to raise its Series A round of funding led by Aarin Capital Partners, which has been founded by Infosys veteran T.V. Mohandas Pai and Dr Ranjan Pai. Till now, TripFactory.com was a bootstrapped venture.
Commenting on the investment, Mohandas Pai, Co-Founder, Aarin Capital, said, "TripFactory has a strong and experienced team. Having built Via.com earlier, I see good opportunity and rapid growth already over the last few months and I'm excited to be a part of their journey in building TripFactory as India's largest holiday company."
The new round of funding will be used by the company to grow the business as well as invest in building a solid technology team and mobile expertise. Further, sharing his thoughts about the new partnership, Vinay Gupta, Co-founder, TripFactory, shared, "We are really excited to partner with Aarin Capital and have luminaries like Mohan on-board to guide us to the next level."
TripFactory was started with a vision to create holiday planning and buying hassle-free for consumers. It's the first real-time marketplace for travel, which allows consumers to buy products from wholesalers and suppliers seamlessly online. Consumers also have the option to chat online with experts and personalize their holidays.
"India is a large growing market for both domestic and outbound travel and most consumers like personalising their own holiday packages or seek assistance by talking to experts, who can plan for them, and we are making that whole experience seamless using technology," said Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, TripFactory.
The start-up provides curated packages by tour experts and travel operators to customer, which can be enhanced further as desired. The company provides choice of over 10,000 holidays from over 100 destinations. TripFactory has also partnered with airlines such Jet Airways, Go Air, SpiceJet and Air Costa to power holidays and Flight + Hotels on their own websites.
Sharing his thoughts on what differentiated TripFactory from other travel start-ups, Gupta said, "Consumers generally plan holidays based on themes such as entertainment, places to visit, destinations and type of travel. Our natural language processing algorithms and machine learning programs allow consumers to search in plain text e.g. "goa packages near beach under 10000' or "fly from Bangalore to Delhi next Tuesday and stay in a 5 star'. The backend technology and experts construct a package in real-time that can be customized in detail."
