Expects 2 million monthly users by end of 2015.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: “User-generated travel itineraries aggregator” TripHobo raised $3 million in Series B funding. The investment was led by Silicon Valley-based Mayfield and Kalaari Capital, the latter of which is returning after committing to the Series A in July 2014.
The incoming funds are slated for research & development, talent acquisition, scaling content, and technology integration with the travel ecosystem, the company said in a release.
“The ambition for Triphobo is to be the central point of the trip planning process by allowing users to plan, optimize and eventually book customized trips by leveraging technology. The founders of TripHobo have demonstrated a keen understanding of the industry and built a scalable platform that has seen great traction over the past year. We believe Triphobo represents the very best of Travel 3.0 and we are very excited to partner with the team,” released Nikhil Khattau, MF Advisors Managing Partner at Mayfield, in an official statement.
TripHobo serves as a visual trip planner that uses proprietary algorithms to help users choose where they want to travel, suggests activities, and makes bookings to facilitate any excursion. At the back end, the algorithm takes travel distances, open and close times, preferred transportation, and more factors into account when optimizing a trip.
“We believe that customization is going to be the game changer for travel industry in the coming years. Travelers are no longer satisfied with ‘one size fits all’ holidays and are demanding unique experiences. With the perfect mix of technology and people, TripHobo is ideally placed to leverage this trend,” said Kalaari Capital’s Principal, Sumit Jain, told the Press Trust of India, who reported the story.
According to the TripHobo website, the startup — which was originally called JoGuru — was founded in Pune by Praveen Kumar, Saket Newaskar, and Karthik Ramachandra. The three now serve as the chief executive, chief technology officer, and chief operating officer, respectively.
Since it went live, the site has aided in creating over 70,000 travel itineraries and curated content for nearly 400 top tourist cities worldwide.
“We’re excited to be now associated two of the leading VC firms in India. Three years ago, we set out to create a global product out of India. Being avid travelers, my co-founders and I felt that there was a massive space for innovation in customization of travel. I believe we’ve been vindicated both by our users, who continue to love the product; and our investors, who’ve reposed their faith in our vision,” said CEO Praveen Kumar to PTI.
YouStory Media reported an Android application is in the pipeline while an iOS app is already out. The company plans to hit 2 million monthly users by the end of 2015.