TravelUR Gearing Up For Series A Round of Funding
TravelUR was envisioned about 18 months back by a team of world travel enthusiasts, business leaders and architects in technology from six different countries. Created as a unique global travel platform, TravelUR aims to help travel needs of every traveler both in ecommerce and social engagement space thereby making every travel experience a lifetime digital memory.
BWDisrupt spoke to Sunil Konduru, President & CEO, TravelUR Solutions Private Ltd. to know more in-depth about their vision about their venture:-
What are TravelUR unique key feature/services?
TravelUR is unique – We integrate airlines, hotels, buses, vacations and local transport along with social engagement. TravelUR also provides independent travel reviews and digital travel profiling. So the User has easy access to rates, recommendations, rewards and memories, all in one place
TravelUR helps every traveler effortlessly plan & execute dream vacations without troubling ones budget and at same time create wonderful digital memories of the trips for lifetime and share with loved ones and friends
User has access to awesome vacation packages for all budgets and in addition gets best deals in flight bookings with minimal convenience fees and no cancellation charges.
Users can socially engage through TravelUR Connect to share travel experiences, photos and videos with friends and family and connect with people, and other like-minded fellow travelers, create own groups, share travel memories& plan future trips together.
Create individual travel Profile and enjoy best customized deals and offers based on profile choices and preferences Win travel giveaways like Free world tour and many more individual and family trips.
Users can share and have access to first-hand experiences, detailed and unbiased information from friends and referrals on 5000 destinations and 500 amazing vacations around the world making smart travel planning and hassle free.
How TravelUR is different from existing ones?
With technology and social media that has taken over the world, the way we travel has changed. TravelUR aims to become an analytics based comprehensive travel eco-system that aims to change the travel industry by shifting transactional power away by combining travel and social engagement and digital memories into one platform.
TravelUR also serves as a unique end to end global travel engagement platform that helps in creating unlimited Digital memories for individual User.
Through TravelUR connect, User can connect with fellow travelers, make new friends who share the same interest and interact with them. Users can share stories, reviews and hear new ones from like-minded fellow travelers and plan future travels together with colleagues, friends and family and make an experience like never before!
Individual Travel Profile is another unique concept through which User get to know the news, events and deals for a particular destination or type of vacation, based on their individual preferences. User can win awesome giveaways like a free world tour on simple and gamified manner.
What is the TravelUR funding status?
Started and self- funded, TravelUR recently attracted $200k angel round. Enabled by global technology and travel leaders and supported by a global advisory board, the management team is gearing up for A-series funding primarily for the marketing and sales front.
What is TravelUR monetization model and traction details if any?
Monetization strategy for TravelUR is planned in three phases.
Phase One – Transaction revenue primarily focusing Ecommerce
Phase Two – Building supplier base on a subscription and employment generation model
Phase Three – Data mining and monetization of data based on User’s behaviour
What are the future plans of TravelUR?
In next five years TravelUR aims to become a global company and develop Travel and Tourism related services at grass root level with a plan to generate employment for 50k people to service 50 million worldwide users
What are and marketing plans of TravelUR?
Digital Media followed by aggressive spend on Giveaways – Six months. Establish sales and marketing presence in top 10 Indian cities – Six to 12 months. Establish S&M presence in 30 additional locations
What are the challenges faced by TravelUR?
Market is driven by discounts, so one of challenges faced is in the e-commerce area.
What are the opportunities for TravelUR?
According to the President of TravelUR, Sunil - Travelling is one of life’s greatest joys. As more and more people are packing their bags to take a break from everyday routine, we believe travel industry is evolving fast and this growth phase offers a great opportunity to contribute to entire travel eco system at grass root levels in developing countries and at the same time support existing travel industry.
Industry Growth Indicators
Travel and Tourism in India is estimated to grow at a CAGR 12% for next five years against world growth of 4%.
The Indian aviation industry is on a high growth trajectory. India has a vision of becoming the third largest aviation market by 2020 and is expected to be the largest by 2030.
India’s middle-class population of nearly 50M, or 5% of the overall population (2015 estimated), is expected to grow steadily over the next decade to 200M by 2020 and 475M by 2030
Travel and tourism industry in India is expected to grow by 8.3 per cent in 2016, outperforming the general economy by 3.5 percentage points.
In a country which has the world’s second largest number of internet users (after China and surpassed US in 2015) with 49% year on year growth, online travel related interaction and booking of travel plans is poised to grow at a faster rate
Indian online travel industry is growing with 49% CAGR; OTA’s account for 17.5% of total gross bookings
As per renowned research firms and government statistics, the online penetration in travel and tourism bookings is estimated to increase from 41% in 2014 to 46% in 2017.
According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, BCG, the number of Internet users in India is estimated to reach 580 mn in 2018 from 205 mn in 2014, primarily led by affordable access and improved awareness.
Better air and rail connectivity between Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities
Travel & Tourism- 140 Billion USD, Online Bookings- 15 Billion USD, Related services - 70 - 100 Billion USD
Government initiative to build 150 new airports by 2020
