Travel-tech firm Guiddoo gets fresh capital in extended pre-Series A round

Travel technology firm Guiddoo World Travels Pvt. Ltd has raised $800,000 (about Rs 5.6 crore at current exchange rates) in an extended pre-Series A round of funding from three individual investors, a company statement said.

ITC executive Angshuman Sarkar, Dubai-based entrepreneur Stephen D’mello and Singapore-based resident Rennie Ratadia, the statement added.

The company will use the capital to build a pan-India distribution network, add more destinations and to further develop its technology platform, the press note stated.

“The capital raised will help us expand our footprint, augment our infrastructure and acquire talent,” said Vineet Budki, co-founder and chief executive of Guiddoo.

It also aims to start operations in China by February 2019, the statement added.

The company was founded in 2014 by Budki, Nidhi Varma, Prashant Choudhary and Biswajeet Karmakar. It started as a tour guide app but expanded itself in 2016 to an in-destination platform offering tours and activities, dining, shopping and entertainment options.

A predominantly a business-to-business company, it offers its services across 11 international destinations and has a tie-up with over 4,000 travel agent partners, besides running an Android app. The company is present in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In June 2017, the company had raised $300,000 (Rs 1.9 crore) in a pre-Series A round from a group of individual investors.

In 2015, it had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a clutch of angel investors.

Deals in the space

A number of ventures in the online travel technology segment have secured funding recently.

In October, tour operator Thomas Cook (India) Ltd had agreed to pick up a 24% stake in Mumbai-based Traveljunkie Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which runs Ithaka, an app offering chat-based real-time travel advice from destination experts.

In the same month, TravelTriangle, an online marketplace for holiday packages, raised $3 million (around Rs 22 crore at current exchange rates) in venture debt from InnoVen Capital. It had raised $12 million (Rs 78 crore) in a Series C round of funding led by growth-capital firm Fundamentum Partnership in April.

In August, WoVoyage, a travel startup for women, secured seed funding from Singapore-based investors Shabir Momin and Rohit Nanda.