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Tag: travelling

  • How to Become A Digital Nomad in 2022? | Business Ideas of Digital Nomads

    Being a wanderlust who wants to explore this beautiful world and earn millions at the same time is a dream for many. Imagine having a virtual office where there is no clock to haunt you about the deadlines and you have the freedom to move around anytime. Well, that’s not a dream! It simply means that it’s high time you become a Digital Nomad.

    A Digital Nomad is a person who gets the chance to explore every nook and corner of this globe while earning bucks by working on the internet. A location-independent worker who can be a founder, freelancer, or employee. They can simply work with the help of a smartphone or a laptop along with a good internet connection.

    “It was amazing to have the flexibility to build a temporary home anywhere in the world — as long as it had internet,” -Stephanie Lee.

    The profession seems to be very alluring. In this article, we will talk about some Digital Nomad business ideas through which you can earn a lot of money and also the problems that a Digital Nomad faces.

    Digital Nomad Annual Growth

    Digital Nomad Business Ideas
    Problems That Digital Nomads Face

    Digital Nomad Business Ideas

    Some of the best business ideas through which you can earn a lot of money while being a digital nomad are:

    Get Yourself Free From Debts

    If you have finalised to roam like a free bird then clearing all your credit card/debit card debts should be your priority. It’s not easy to earn when you have empty wallets. You must have enough to pay for your expenses in a foreign country. Imagine a scenario in which your wallet or phone gets stolen then how will you fight the situation being a digital nomad?

    So before you start the journey of being a Digital Nomad get yourself free from all the debts. After that, your first step is to get a high-paying job. There are many jobs available which you can do anywhere in the world. So, learn some high-demand skills and start applying for jobs or projects.

    Start a Blog

    The principle phenomena to enter the digital business. Many bloggers with their quality content earn a good amount. You need to learn some basic skills in designing and maintaining a blog.

    Before starting a blog you have to research a lot about the niche in which you will write. Many successful bloggers started their journey with no money and now they have reached so far because of their writing skills and creativity. You have to be enough creative to start a blog.

    Travel blogging can allow you to make your passion into a career by expressing your travel experience to a group of audiences, across the globe. You can also become a part-time content writer or a freelance content writer. Many writers are getting paid a huge amount of money because of their writing skills and it is one of the greatest elements to improve your portfolio. So all you need is a good internet connection and a laptop and you are good to go.

    Working Holiday Visas

    A working holiday visa is a residence permit which allows you to travel, and work or study at the same time in the country issuing the visa to supplement your travel funds.

    Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Singapore, and Canada are the countries that offer foreigners, usually young adults, work on holiday visas. This is one of the best opportunities for you to earn while travelling. It helps you to stay in the country for up to a year, travel and earn at the same place.

    Tour Guide

    It is confidence and good communication skills that you need to become a tour guide. If you don’t have these skills you can easily learn them and after that, you can apply for a tour guide job in a company or you can also do this as a part-time job. If you have the art of engaging a group of people with a bit of humour and excitement, congratulations you can become a good tourist guide.

    There are agencies that give you on-spot work and you can earn instantly from it. You can chit-chat with the people have fun with them and make their experience memorable and one of a kind. All you need is good research about a particular place and a few leadership skills.

    Online Selling

    The job of sales is quite lucrative abroad. Travellers can shop around the markets of the city and sell the stuff online. There are many platforms available where you can sell your items online. You can also do this through social media groups which are now on-trend in terms of social media marketing.

    Other options include the middlemen jobs, where you sell and earn a commission. You can also make handicrafts, woollen garments, and accessories and sell them in the local market. If you are a real go-getter and unafraid of new people and places you can earn a good amount of money by sales.

    Photography As a Career

    Clicking pictures is so cool. Almost all of us like to click pictures and take videos of the places we visit and their majestic beauties. Well, for a fact that there are numerous people out there who can buy your pictures. If you have a professional camera and if you believe that you are a pro photographer, you can earn a good income from this work. You could create your website and sell your travel pictures.

    There are many websites available where you can sell your photos online like Shutterstock, Getty images, etc. But you have to make sure that the quality of the image is too good. If everything goes well you can earn a lot of money passively.

    Provide Professional Services

    Are you a graphic designer, programmer, lawyer, or accountant? Then why don’t you extend your services online? Numerous websites provide a platform for professionals like you. You don’t need to tie yourself with anyone or any firm.

    Build a portfolio that can blow people’s minds and try to build your network. You can also start your agency and attract new clients by providing a unique service. But here you have to have some unique skills which you can sell to the customers. You need to find a burning problem and a solution to that which you are going to provide.

    Teach People Online

    Have you thought of becoming a teacher? No!? But then you have a chance to earn some bucks easily. Online platforms like Unacademy, Coursera, and Udacity, are quite famous that giving a chance to everyone to upload their courses and earn money.

    There are also many websites available where you can start teaching on an hourly basis. You just need to have good English speaking skills and you are well on your way to getting started. If you can manage to do online teaching while travelling, you can easily be a digital nomad.

    Virtual Tutoring

    Have a particular skill you can teach that would work virtually for tutoring? You can teach just about anything over Skype. This works especially well for teaching languages or subjects in school or even sometimes a musical instrument. You can search for virtual tutoring jobs on sides like Indeed and many others.

    This is just like an online teaching job but here you have to find clients or students on your own. You can teach anything through video call but make sure you are the expert in that specific field.

    Copy Editing

    Are you aware of the AP Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style standards? Then you can work for print magazines and financial institution reports and non-profit newsletters. The job requires the skill of high accuracy and fluency in the English language. It is about reviewing the written material and rectifying grammatical mistakes. The standard rate is 30$ per hour in the U.S.

    There are many startups where you can apply for a copyediting job. But before applying make sure you have excellent grammar skills and also creative thinking as is a part of this job.

    Become A Web Developer

    Website developers can be specific types of programmers. On the other hand, some website developers are simply digital artists who only need to know the basics of coding language to perform the job.

    Web developers build, maintain, and fix websites. They either work using code with some sort of coding language or via a more intuitive content management system like WordPress. These people take an internet-based idea and, well, develop it.

    They create and build the style, layout, look, and various functions of a website. They also take care of any bugs that make a site slow, unstable, or unusable in some way. This kind of digital worker is responsible for building, testing, and maintaining the proper functionality of a website. There are many courses available that you can take to become a professional Web Developer.

    If you don’t know how to make a website, no worries!! You can easily learn it within one or two weeks. There are many online courses available on the internet where you can learn all the programming skills like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, etc. You will need to learn these in order to become a web developer digital nomad.

    Become An App Developer

    The work of an app developer is similar to that of a website developer. But because the coding styles and languages are different, the skill sets needed are also different. As a web developer, an app developer takes an idea for an application—either a phone or computer app—and develops it.

    They build the layout, functions, and features of an application. They test it, analyze its flaws, and fix any bugs that could hamper its usability. Some developers are responsible for making sure the app functions as it should for peak performance and user experience.

    Again, as the digital age continues to reach new heights, the demand for talented app developers will continue to increase. Maybe you’ll become inspired by your travels and create an innovative app for fellow nomads!

    Social Media Marketer

    Nearly all major brands have a social media presence. They need someone to build, refine, analyse, and manage that presence.

    Social media marketing helps create and maintain a brand’s public face. They’re instrumental in getting everyday consumers interested in and engaged with that brand via social media.

    These digital workers schedule social media posts, run contests on social platforms, and respond to comments, concerns, and queries on a brand’s social networks.

    In this regard, sometimes the social media marketer can double as a community manager by ensuring the brand’s community stays happy. No one can deny the ubiquity of social media in today’s business environment. That’s why social media marketers are a necessary and treasured part of any brand’s core identity.

    So, the job of a social media manager comes into play where you have the task of increasing the followers and subscribers. There are so many groups and communities available where you can get or apply for a Social Media managing job. You can also start your own social media marketing agency and attract new start-ups. Here you need no money to get started, you just need some high-quality skills.

    Virtual Assistant

    A virtual assistant performs remote tasks across many fascinating industries, but the core of the job is administrative. Some virtual assistant jobs last a day, some for weeks or months. The median salary for this position is $15.57 an hour, and like any assistant, virtual ones need to be good on the computer, well organized and deliver what is asked. Having good communication skills and email manners helps.

    Like other online jobs here also you need to have some skill set to apply for the job. If you are an expert on something then apply for remote jobs in that specific niche. It will take time to get the job but once you will get some experience you will be able to complete more and more projects.

    Data Entry

    Data entry work is location-independent which means, perfect for a digital nomad. It also doesn’t require investment in equipment or skills training. Data entry work boils down to entering information on a computer.

    While it doesn’t require previous experience or a bachelor’s degree, the work does require basic computer skills, such as knowledge of typing, accuracy, and speed, as well as installing and removing software, creating new folders, sending emails, and using the internet.

    Problems That Digital Nomads Face

    Medical insurance

    Wherever you are in the world, medical insurance is imperative, and you need a policy in place in case of emergencies. Digital nomads need to buy medical insurance, and several insurers charge between $30 and–80 a month. Although, if you remain in a location for a long time, it’s typically cheaper to purchase medical insurance in that country.

    Keeping Your Possessions Safe

    Digital nomads depend on technology; it’s the main reason they can have their lifestyle in the first place. They need a reliable smartphone, battery chargers, cables, and a portable and flexible laptop. Plus, depending on your career, you may need other expensive gear to do your job — cameras, monitors, keyboards, and so on. Whatever you need, you’ll need to carry it with you wherever you go or need to leave it somewhere safe.

    Whilst insurance can replace the financial loss of broken or stolen equipment; it won’t replace the time lost or help you meet your deadlines. Keeping everything safe is a constant challenge.

    Travel Disruptions

    Travel defines the digital nomad lifestyle. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re continually on the road though. Digital nomads typically establish a home base and stay there for one to six months at a time. The travelling part is when they take trips to and from that base.

    This is where travel disruptions can cause issues in meeting deadlines. Any traveller will tell you, that wherever you go from destination to destination, there’s the possibility of delays and cancellations. This means potentially losing days and not hitting deadlines. It’s bad enough on vacation, let alone in the middle of a working week.

    Surviving Financially

    Digital nomads are often freelancers and don’t have any ongoing employment contracts. As with anything in life, excellent jobs can end at short-term notice, and surviving financially can be challenging. It’s very daunting to consider how to replace this loss of income. Typically, freelancers never turn down work, for fear of not having enough money when work slows down.

    Conclusion

    In today’s world, it is all about consistency, passion, and dedication to what you choose. If you match your abilities, skills, passion, interest, and motivation to these jobs you can surely earn a good amount of income while travelling. The idea of working while travelling is not so new, but how today’s youth is carrying the activity is far better than it was in the past. It is not as easy as it seems to be but if you have the willpower and encouragement you will do it.

    FAQs

    Who are Digital Nomads?

    Digital nomads are people who are location-independent and use technology to perform their job. Digital nomads work remotely, telecommuting rather than being physically present at a company’s headquarters or office.

    What do digital nomads need?

    8 things every digital nomad needs to get their work done:

    • Hotspot.
    • Travel Bag.
    • Electronics Organizer.
    • Headphones/Headset.
    • Portable Charger.
    • External Hard Drive.
    • Lap Desk.
    • Relaxation Items.

    What skills do I need to be a digital nomad?

    5 Steps to Becoming a Digital Nomad:

    • Develop in-demand online skills. Many digital nomads work in fields like design, web development, and digital marketing.
    • Create a portfolio. Start building your portfolio of work so you can market yourself effectively.
    • Sell your services.
    • Cut the clutter.
    • Start your nomadic journey.

  • PickYourTrail – A Success Story of How It is Making Vacation Planning a Breeze!

    Till now what most of the travelers have been doing while booking international trips is to either book a pre-made package where one gets to see what the travel agents want to show, or go unplanned and explore things locally. However, there are drawbacks in both these ways. In pre-made packages, one has to rush through all or selected important tourist spots irrespective of one’s interest and do not get much time to experience and feel the destination. Again, going without a plan to a new destination can turn out to be a perfect disaster without proper knowledge and guidance. But thankfully now, there is a third way too, to plan your international trip. Pickyourtrail, a Chennai based travel startup is here to plan trips which are specially customized as per your interest, travel duration, etc. With these customized trips, one can explore a place at his own pace, while Pickyourtrail takes care of all the nuisances like hotel booking, activity booking and more.

    Pickyourtrail Highlights

    Startup Name Pickyourtrail
    Headquarter Chennai
    Founders Hari Ganapathy & Srinath Shankarnarayanan
    Sector Travel and Tourism
    Founded 2014
    Website PickYourTrail.com
    Parent Organization Travel Troops Global Pvt Ltd

    About Pickyourtrail
    Pickyourtrail – Industry
    Pickyourtrail – Founders and Team
    Pickyourtrail – Startup Story | How was Pickyourtrail Started?
    Pickyourtrail – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Pickyourtrail – Launching Startup
    Pickyourtrail – Revenue Model
    Pickyourtrail – Funding and Investors
    Pickyourtrail – User Acquisition
    Pickyourtrail – Startup Challenges
    Pickyourtrail – Competitors
    Pickyourtrail – Growth
    Pickyourtrail – Awards
    Pickyourtrail – Future Plans

    About Pickyourtrail

    Pickyourtrail helps travelers plan for their vacations without the pain involved in the planning. The platform uses deep-tech to let travelers create, customize and book international vacations in a jiffy. Pickyourtrail’s proprietary comfort score considers more than 40 factors like duration, travel time, ratings, etc to build personalized itineraries that travelers can further customize  & book. After the trip is booked, travelers can use Pickyourtrail’s app to keep track of bookings and get real-time information on flight and weather updates, restaurant recommendations and on-trip chat support.

    In February 2020, Pickyourtrail announced partnership with fintech company ZestMoney to provide consumers with flexible payment options for booking itineraries.  Pickyourtrail customers will now be able to book travel packages at No Cost EMIs, along with options to ‘Travel now, pay later in 3 easy installments. Through this partnership, Pickyourtrail aims to build a wider customer base.

    Some USPs of Pickyourtrail are–

    •    Trips are 100% customizable
    •    All-round support is provided to the traveler during the trip
    •    The travelers get to choose from unlimited traveling options based on one’s own  requirements
    •    Trips are tailored in a pocket-friendly manner.

    Our goal is to become one of the top travel brands globally when it comes to vacations. Given that we have the piping/infrastructure in place in terms of automated bookings, independent modules there are a lot of opportunities for us to tap into newer businesses – Hari Ganapathy

    Pickyourtrail – Industry

    As per various reports, the total outbound travel market will be valued at about $40Bn by 2020. As per a recent WTO Report, India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020. Again, as per a report by a leading OTA in India, the total outbound “online” market is $3.3B.  If you take in the global vacation market, that is a much larger number.

    “We strongly believe that this is neither a winner takes it all market nor a shrinking pie; there is a large headroom for growth for us,” Hari says explaining the outbound travel market.

    Top 10 New Trends in Business Travel In 2019
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    Pickyourtrail – Founders and Team

    Hari Ganapathy and Srinath Shankarnarayanan are the founders of Pickyourtrail. Hari and Shankar are friends since college days. Both the founders are passionate travelers and it is their love for travel that motivated them to start Pickyourtrail.

    Hari Ganapathy

    Hari Ganapathy is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore. Prior to founding Pickyourtrail, Hari worked with prestigious companies like  Cognizant  Technology Solution, Macquarie Bank, Britannia Industries Limited, Reckitt Benckiser and InMobi.

    Srinath Shankarnarayanan

    Srinath Shankarnarayanan is the calm that every organisation needs. His ability to break down the everyday chaos into digestible smaller units is priceless. Srinath enjoys both math and aeroplane modeling! He is the brain behind the routing, pricing and personalization algorithm at Pickyourtrail. He holds a Bachelors in Mathematics and an MBA from NMIMS Bombay. His ability to talk across subjects right from Sitcoms, bikes, wartime books, plane building to complex algorithms make him a great person to hang out with!

    Team PickyourTrail

    Pickyourtrail – Startup Story | How was Pickyourtrail Started?

    Pickyourtrail began as an attempt to break how vacations are currently been planned and booked by travelers. The seed to all this began in August 2012 when co-founders – Hari & Srinath went on a Europe trip.

    Ardent travelers themselves, the duo had put in more than 2 months to fully craft their vacation. This included planning end-end, bookings, and visa processing. It was during their trip they stumbled upon fellow travelers who were all on packaged tours. Interacting with them, Hari & Srinath understood they were literally rushed between destinations and their urge to discover new experiences wasn’t fulfilled. The travelers, on the other hand, were amazed to see the flexibility Hari and Srinath had in their itinerary and that piqued their interest.

    Once back home, the duo was bombarded with pings asking for details on how they went about planning the entire trip. These interactions slowly multiplied and this lead to an idea that changed their career roadmaps forever!

    Pickyourtrail was a name that embodied choice and travel.

    “In fact we got early customers calling it Pickmytrail and luckily we got that domain as well :)” Hari says.

    Initially, Pickyourtrail’s tagline was, Stop Touring, Start Travelling, this was easily relatable to the new age travelers who didn’t want to be tourists. That was also in sync with the company’s early goals of getting more folks to travel at their own pace and style. The company’s current tagline is ‘Unwrap the World’.

    “As we matured and built a brand, we now have moved to Unwrap the World. We believe this helps us position the brand globally and has a lot more emotional layers than the earlier one” – Hari says explaining the thought behind the tagline

    Pickyourtrail’s first logo was aimed around a play on infinite options that were possible if we traveled.

    Pickyourtrail’s first logo

    The current logo was re-built with the need that the old logo could not easily fit into various shapes and color backgrounds. Pickyourtrail wanted to move to a logo which could scale across collaterals and use cases. The new logo symbolizes a flag and P and a baggage tag as well. The ideation behind this was – a flag is generally used to symbolize a group of people united by a cause or value system.

    Pickyourtrail’s current logo

    Pickyourtrail – Launching Startup

    Pickyourtrail was  launched initially as an activity market place – the positioning was – “when was the last time you did something for the first time?” While there was a lot of traffic on the product, the traffic to conversion was quite low. Interacting with the customers, the team realized the biggest problem was no hook to book. With hotels and flights, pricing and availability were strong hooks. With an activity, there was no real hook. In this process, they realized that planning an end to end vacation was a huge hassle.
    This time around the team decided to just build a minimum viable product for end-to-end travel planning, and had a simple landing page. This got Pickyourtrail almost 10000 sign-ups in the first few weeks and there was no looking back!

    Pickyourtrail’s initial landing page which attracted 10000+ signups within a few weeks

    Looking at the great interest that people showed towards end to end travel planning, Pickyourtrail launched VEHO in 2016 –this was its first attempt at building a product where travelers can create, customize, and book vacations online.

    “We were quite skeptical about market response and hence launched it under a new name VEHO. We scaled Bali on the back of VEHO and then brought it back under the mother brand in 2017” – said the Pickyourtrail founders.

    Pickyourtrail – Revenue Model

    Pickyourtrail earns revenue from affiliate commissions or partner commissions that come in from the partners with whom the bookings are done.

    Pickyourtrail – Funding and Investors

    Pickyourtrail raised series A funding worth $3 Million in February 2019. The company further raised an undisclosed sum on March 22, 2022, from a clutch of investors including CRED founder and CEO Kunal Shah, Adit Parekh, Vina Ahuja and other existing investors. The total amount raised by Pickyourtral is more than $3 mn.

    Funding Date Funding Stage Funding Amount Investors
    March 22, 2022 Venture Round Kunal Shah, Adit Parekh, Vina Ahuja and other existing investors
    February 18, 2019 Series A $3 Million Kumar Vembu and Shyam Sekhar and j joined by Rajagopal Subramanian and Girish Mathrubootham

    Pickyourtrail – User Acquisition

    Pickyourtrail acquired its first set of customers from referrals and word of mouth.
    “When a product or service solves long-standing pain points of customers, it accrues good karma. I still remember how our first landing page (personalized vacations, crafted by travelers) was a huge hit! We got 1000 sign-ups within a week. Our emails kept buzzing. And we actually had to start charging folks to start sending itineraries cos there was so much demand”Hari recalls

    Speaking about Pickyourtail’s approach to customers Hari says,“I think like most good products or services, there is always a latent demand and we seem to have hit that wall with our clear positioning. The challenge has been to continue the same amount of quality even as we scale. Every customer whom we brought on board was not a transaction but a longer LTV(Lifetime Value) view. That view has helped us build trust and build the ever-increasing repeat and referral cohort!”

    Pickyourtrail also used social media extensively to reach out to customers

    “The first step was to ensure that we had enough followers on the Facebook page. This was around 2013 and Facebook still let you bulk invite friends to like pages. We ensured that every single friend of ours helped us gain more followers by inviting folks”.Pickyourtrail  concentrated on posting original travel content that was inspirational. This helped the company gain a lot of engagement on the page without having to actually spend.

    In between, Pickyourtrail also dabbled some ideas in Twitter where it would automatically be alerted for any tweet with vacation/itinerary. The team would jump in and answer those questions and plug Pickyourtrail.

    The next hack that worked for Pickyourtrail was sending interesting offers to its subscriber base. Over the first 6 months, the company managed to get up to 5000 email user base and that short tactical campaign helped them garner more monies.

    Hari shared another interesting technique that the Pickyourtrail team employed to get customers on board “At one point we went into competitor Facebook pages and pulled out numbers of folks who were requesting for an itinerary and called them. You would be surprised that almost 8/10 folks were unhappy with the competitor cos nobody would have responded. So we tweaked our strategy a bit and started calling folks only after a couple of days :)”

    The Pickyourtrail team also used groups in FB wisely.

    Rather than  promoting itself, the Pickyourtrail team used its travel knowledge to answer questions in those groups and at the same time spoke about Pickyourtrail.

    Besides, answering on Quora also worked for the company. Pickyourtrail answered about everything under the sun with respect to outbound vacations which helped it attract more customers.

    Currently, Pickyourtrail is actively running campaigns (paid/organic) to grow its customer base and deliver happiness.

    If we had to reflect on the initial strategy – it was around building good content and distributing it. Be it FB, Twitter, Quora. And this when combined with some tactical strategies like Twitter lead alerts, or FB groups it worked quite well. Once we had a flow of customers our execution capabilities ensured that the cycle of repeat and referral kicked in as well.

    MakeMyTrip Success Story – Founder | Business Model | Revenue
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    Pickyourtrail – Startup Challenges

    Hiring and scaling the tech team was one of the main challenges Pickyourtrail faced early on. Another issue that existed was that many supply partners did not have an online presence, making things tough for the Pickyourtrail team.

    As Hari explains, “Once the tech hiring happened, we realized that a lot of supply partnerships was still offline. This meant that customers still had to wait to get their customized quotes. We weren’t happy that the CX was poor because of industry constraints.  For a large part of our supply, we took huge risks and had static pricing. While there could have been potential losses, thanks to our learning algorithms we could revisit these static prices periodically to ensure we minimize exposure. Our focus on “speed as a habit” has helped us come up with quite a few of these hacks and put customer experience at the forefront of all our efforts”

    Pickyourtrail – Competitors

    While Pickyourtrail claims that it has no competition in terms of tech or business model, from a customer’s point of view, competition comes right from Thomas Cook, Cox and Kings, MakeMyTrip to even self-bookers.

    What differentiates the Pickyourtrail from its competitors is broadly two things:
    a) Itineraries that are executable – There are the host of tech companies trying to solve the trip planning problem. Given they don’t take responsibility for the end experience, the itinerary is not necessarily well thought out. At Pickyourtrail, thanks to the combination of routing, personalization and pricing algorithms – the company is able to own the entire end to end consumer experience and ensure that each and every itinerary is bookable!

    b) Touch + Tech Model – A vacation is an emotional purchase and needs consultative selling given that the average ticket size is around 2.5lakhs. Pickyourtrail uses tech to manage critical components like routing, pricing, etc. Parts of the vacation that need high emotional quotient like choosing cities or visa, we bring in a human touch to ensure the overall experience is seamless. This unique approach has also helped Pickyourtrail win recognition from Google and BCG.

    We are extremely cautious as we try and balance the scale and standardization game. We cannot ever put our customer happiness on the back burner. In fact, one of the key levers for our growth is unprecedented leaps in customer delight.

    Pickyourtrail – Growth

    ●    In 2018, Pickyourtrail’s revenue run rate stood at around $9.5 Million
    ●    Number of travelers who picked their trail has grown by ~115% ( 2018-2019 data)
    ●    Peak concurrent traveler stood at 100 people in a day
    ●    Over 300,000 personalized itineraries was created in the first half of 2019
    ●    NPS score of 72 is a testimony of the unrelenting focus on customer happiness.

    ScoutMyTrip – Top Road Trip Planner | Founder | Business Model | Funding
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    Pickyourtrail – Awards

    Pickyourtrail has been recognized for its efforts and services. Some rewards and recognition, that the startup has in its kitty are-

    • Awarded the ‘Startup of the Year’ at the Tiecon Awards in October 2018.
    • Won the ‘Most Innovative Travel Startup’ award at the Travel Tech Launchpad Summit organized by FICCI in March 2018.
    • The Google-BCG Travel Trends Report June 2017, called Pickyourtrail the benchmark in the industry for its comprehensive customer experience.
    • In October 2016, Pickyourtrail was recognized as the Aussie Specialist, mate!
    • In May 2016, Pickyourtrail got into the Top 10 travel innovators at the Phocuswright Asia-Pacific Travel Innovation Summit.

    Pickyourtrail – Future Plans

    For the next 2-3 years, the Pickyourtrail team will be broadly concentrating on

    • Acquiring more customers on the digital medium, and try and build its own digital acquisition channel.
    • Capturing the digital-first audience of tier 2 and tier 3 towns and become their first choice.
    • Beefing up the tech team and overall tech capabilities, to ensure that its product innovation efforts continue to be one of the best in the industry.
    • There is also a larger focus on taking the product global. End of the day there is a European going to the US or an Australian going to Bali and the product is suitable even for them, and the Pickyourtrail team wants to tap this huge global customer base.

    “At our very heart, we want to create happiness and not sell packages. We aspire Pickyourtrail to be the go to platform for do it yourself vacations and unite like minded travelers” – Hari Ganapathy.

    FAQs

    What is the Pickyourtrail company?

    Pickyourtrail is a platform founded in 2014, which enables the users to create, customise and book their vacations. The startup aims to remove all the pains associated with the planning of vacations for travelling enthusiasts and other individuals.  

    Who is the Pickyourtrail founder?

    Hari Ganapathy, and Srinath Shankarnarayanan are the founders of Pickyourtrail.

    What is the name of the Pickyourtrail CEO?

    The Pickyourtrail CEO is not yet confirmed by the company but Pickyourtrail has many CEOs among its investors, including Girish Matrubootham, Kumar Vembu, Kunal Shah, Shyam Sekhar and others.

    Where is the Pickyourtrail headquarters?

    The Pickyourtrail headquarters are located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

  • ScoutMyTrip: Helping You Plan Those Memorable Road Trips!

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by ScoutMyTrip.

    Road trips have a different charm altogether. Stopping by to click photos, trying local food on the way, and those endless chit-chats—what could be more endearing? The experience gets even better and hassle-free when there is proper guidance for making the most of one’s trip: what to see on the way, where to refuel, where the nearest viewpoint is, etc.

    ScoutMyTrip, a Mumbai-based startup, is doing exactly this. The startup plans the nitty-gritty details of your road trip to make it a cherishable experience. Here’s all you need to know about ScoutMyTrip, its founders and team, startup story, business and revenue model, funding and investors, name, logo,, competitors, advisors, challenges, future plans, and more.

    ScoutMyTrip – Company Highlights

    Startup Name ScoutMyTrip
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Founders Deepak Ananth and Vineet Rajan
    Sector Travel and Tourism
    Founded 2016
    Parent Organization ScoutMyTrip Private Limited

    ScoutMyTrip – About
    ScoutMyTrip – Industry Details
    ScoutMyTrip – Founders And Team
    ScoutMyTrip – Startup Story | How It Began?
    ScoutMyTrip – Name And Logo
    ScoutMyTrip – Business Model and Services
    ScoutMyTrip – Revenue Model
    ScoutMyTrip – Funding And Investors
    ScoutMyTrip – User Acquisition
    ScoutMyTrip – Startup Challenges
    ScoutMyTrip – Competitors
    ScoutMyTrip – Advisors And Mentors
    ScoutMyTrip – Awards
    ScoutMyTrip – Future Plans

    ScoutMyTrip – About

    It is a road trip planner which conflates human intelligence with artificial intelligence to help plan the perfect road trip for individuals. ScoutMyTrip works for all sorts of outings, from short weekend travels to long excursions.

    With artificial intelligence, customers can create an itinerary containing the information necessary for their road trip—gas stations, toilets, restaurants, hotels to stay in, and points of interest. The human intelligence aspect brings in the ability to personalize the information as per one’s needs.

    ScoutMyTrip envisions making road trips the preferred means of vacation.  

    An industry first product has been introduced where a Scout (travel expert for the specific region) is virtually assisting the customer throughout the journey (before and during the trip). The Scouts give you the regional flavor and make one’s holiday joyous. We call this ‘Mark and Embark’! Our team is hard at work in building great tech and striving for customer delight each time.

    ScoutMyTrip – Industry Details

    As far as the market is concerned, the road-tripping industry is a subset of a much larger travel domain.  

    “Our total addressable market is pegged at $6.6B with 33 million leisure road trips in one calendar year. This is growing at a very fast rate and we expect it to double in 3 years time. Globally, this market stands at $100B which is really what we are after; but we want to establish ourselves well in the subcontinent which is why we have started operations in Nepal and Bhutan as well” says Vineet.

    ScoutMyTrip – Founders And Team

    Deepak Ananth and Vineet Rajan are the founders of ScoutMyTrip.

    Deepak Ananth & Vineet Rajan, ScoutMyTrip Founders
    Deepak Ananth & Vineet Rajan, ScoutMyTrip Founders

    Deepak Ananth

    Deepak Ananth is the CEO and Co-founder of ScoutMyTrip. He is an Electronics graduate and had been in the corporate space for a really long time, his last assignment being with Verifone as a Director for South-East Asia. Ananth is also known as a storyteller, who loves to travel and sip on fine scotch and old monk. Ananth has a Royal Enfield 500cc bike, and his favorite trip is from Mumbai to Shillong and back.

    Vineet Rajan

    Vineet Rajan was the Co-founder and CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of ScoutMyTrip. Vineet is a Computer Science graduate and has an MBA. Vineet has been involved with various startups throughout his career, and currently works as a Marketing Leader at SAP. After leaving ScoutMyTrip in April 2021 as an Advisor, Rajan joined Shop101 as the Head of Marketing Communications & Organic Growth. Vineet left the Co-founder position of the company in June 2020 and then remained an Advisor for the company before stepping down from that too.

    Deepak and Vineet met each other during a road trip organized by a bikers’ club they were part of. They also held official positions in one of the most sought-after Royal Enfield groups. This gave them a chance to collaborate in non-professional capacities. Their thoughts resonated since both wanted to do something unique in the domain of road trips, thus deliberating over possible ideas in 2015.

    In terms of workload, Deepak has been responsible for the overall strategy and public relations while Vineet looked into the marketing and sales segment. Soumen Bhowmick serves as the Head of Business Development.

    Neeraj Sinha was the CTO and used to manage everything to do with tech. Neeraj Sinha worked at a prestigious company, with excellent remuneration and an experience worth mentioning, but he left all of it just because of his love for travelling, which was fulfilled when he joined ScoutMyTrip after working for around 14 years with the same organisation. Though his father was in the Railways, he had seen the real struggle, as per several interviews, where he stated that his father was left with hardly any money in the middle of the month. This was what drove him away from the government sector jobs, thereby placing him in the private sector. Neeraj started with some odd jobs like that of the EDP Operator but he eventually pursued an MCA degree from IGNOU, and then he never looked back. Sinha soon joined Sopra Steria, then known as Xansa, as a Software Engineer in 2002.

    In 2015, we had started talking about putting our collective experience of road tripping so many kilometers into a tech product which can help other travelers. So a ‘road trip’ called ScoutMyTrip began! Building a work drives us – and that is the common area of interest for us. Our team sticks with us; because of the independence we give them in their working style. We measure results; and not the means.  

    ScoutMyTrip – Startup Story | How It Began?

    Both Deepak and Vineet happen to be road trip aficionados. It was this love which inspired them to conceive ScoutMyTrip with a view to guide road-trippers on making the most out of leisurely travels.

    We picked this idea because both of us love road trips. Having road tripped on the iconic Royal Enfield bikes in India with over 600,000 kilometers between us; we decided to build a solution that will help people road trip better. Because not everyone will have the knowledge of roads as we would do.

    While maps have been the traditional go-to for navigational requirements, ScoutMyTrip is building a new category in road trip planning. The ideation process for ScoutMyTrip started back in late 2015.

    ScoutMyTrip has been designed after taking suggestions from men and women consumed by wanderlust (not limited to bikers) and scouts to make the product more customer-centric. The product’s features are the results of the feedback from more than 500 fellow travelers and Scouts. The ScoutMyTrip team carried out a survey involving over 1000 people (including individuals not too inclined towards travelling) to cover every possible scenario. This is imperative given the dynamics of the decision-making process when it comes to travelling. The team also reached out to members of various travel clubs in India. The intimate discussions with these travel communities have been pivotal in onboarding travel experts for helping others.

    Some of the first people we spoke to about ScoutMyTrip were all kicked. From investors, the biking community, travel forums and everyone around. We did, however, get a sense that we would have to establish ourselves very quickly; and hence we started seed funded the company in 2016.

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    Since the startup emphasized having seasoned travelers help plan trips, it wanted to have the essence of a ‘guide’ in its name. After much consideration, the name ScoutMyTrip was finalized for it captured this essence through ‘Scout’.

    ScoutMyTrip Logo

    The Logo shows an inverted magnifying glass and signifies a bird pecking when seen straight (birds usually symbolize freedom). The road in the center is symbolic of travelling. The three colors represent the brand’s values—community, safety and fun.

    A lot of thought has gone into the logo. A good friend Kirtee understood our requirements and came up with that effective logo. We still sometimes joke about how much we troubled her for the logo but wherever we go, we get great feedback on the logo and that is always music to the ears of any founder.

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    ScoutMyTrip – Business Model and Services

    ScoutMyTrip is a freemium product. Customer can sign up for free on the website and can plan their road trips using the planner for a lifetime. The planner allows the user to add 25-way points (Google allows you just 10) on their route. It suggests places to stay and eat, gas stations, and things to do—all under one platform.

    Customers can choose to pay a premium in case they would like assistance with their planning. They are then assigned Scouts who help not just in building itineraries but also by providing virtual assistance throughout the trip.

    ScoutMyTrip from the beginning has followed a very community-centric approach. Be it a community of travelers or that of Scouts. It’s always about the people with technology which revolves around it. Scouts are the key differentiator for us. We’re a marketplace of travel experts who curate the best on the road experiences.

    ScoutMyTrip has partnered with travel experts and individuals from different parts of India. These skilled individuals know the local haunts, have adequate knowledge about different places to visit and are the best people to reach out to for a well-planned road trip. ScoutMyTrip has a reach all over India and also services Indian travelers visiting Nepal and Bhutan.

    The company has scaled quite a few times – from being just another travel agency to doing marketing campaigns for travel brands and now fully focusing on helping people plan awesome road trips.

    Itinerary Created by ScoutMyTrip
    Itinerary Created by ScoutMyTrip

    ScoutMyTrip – Revenue Model

    ScoutMyTrip has a well-planned revenue model and earns revenue from the following sources:

    • Hiring a Scout: When a traveler contacts an expert (Scout), ScoutMyTrip earns a percentage of the planning fee. The rates vary from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 9000 and can go up to Rs. 50,000 for custom trips and itineraries.
    • Platform integrations: The planner can be integrated with other travel websites for a wholesome user experience.
    • Corporate tie-ups and group tours: ScoutMyTrip has been successfully doing this for more than a year now and has organized over 500 group road trips for individuals and corporate houses.
    • Road trip packages: Once the trips are planned, the ScoutMyTrip Experience team bundles the following as part of the package:

      – Hotel bookings

         – Self-drive cars and taxis

         – Guides

         – Roadside assistance/insurance

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    ScoutMyTrip – Funding And Investors

    ScoutMyTrip raised seed funding from Z Nation Lab in April 2017.

    Funding Date Funding Stage Funding Amount Investors
    April 2017 Angel Round Undisclosed Z Nation Lab

    ScoutMyTrip – User Acquisition

    ScoutMyTrip was launched for insider access or closed beta in October 2016. It got its first 5000 signups in one month and there has been no looking back ever since. ScoutMyTrip had incidentally launched its blog much before the website came into existence. This allowed the company to build communication with its target customers. Through its blogs, the team was able to expound the vision for its product to an eagerly awaiting consumer base.

    Content marketing has been a driver for ScoutMyTrip. The company has approximately 90 % of its users coming through social media platforms powered by influencers already a part of the ScoutMyTrip community. Word of mouth publicity also has been a good contributor for ScoutMyTrip with around 10% of user acquisition from this stream.

    The majority of spending by ScoutMyTrip in the marketing space are on Facebook and Instagram advertising. A lot more time is vested on SEO and building great content which markets itself.

    ScoutMyTrip takes pride in being a content-driven brand and has taken ownership of three intellectual properties to keep in touch with its focus group—the travel enthusiasts.

    • The Great Indian Food Trip: The Great Indian Food Trip is an exploratory drive-by ScoutMyTrip through the hinterlands of India for rediscovering some of the most iconic and largely lost gems of Indian cuisine.
    • The Highest Blogger Meet: The idea here is to take influential bloggers from different walks of life to the highest motorable roads in the world. On those roads, ScoutMyTrip hosts a blogger meet, setting a record in terms of altitude each time. The last successful attempt was at Khardung La in partnership with OYO Rooms.
    • #AageSeRight: A viral sensation on Instagram that is common amongst road trippers. AageSeRight is a Hindi phrase used as a response when asking for directions; ScoutMyTrip was able to create a medium of brand recall through this hashtag.  

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    ScoutMyTrip – Startup Challenges

    Deepak and Vineet had the most modest upbringing, belonging to middle-class Indian families. Deepak had been working in corporate roles (at senior positions in reputed companies) for over 20 years before ScoutMyTrip. Vineet had an entrepreneurial mindset throughout his career but his only brush was by being a member of an established startup. As a result, launching a startup was no less than a challenge due to lack of prior experience as told by Vineet.

    Whether such a platform would find a place and apprehensions about them treading the right path plagued the founders in the initial phase.  

    Our families were very supportive. Parents who heard us out asked the right questions and then wholeheartedly supported us, spouses who stood by us, ready to fight the same battles along with us, helped to make our minds up, much easier.    

    ScoutMyTrip – Competitors

    As Vineet says, the biggest competitors are the airlines and railways, which make up for over 80% of all travel spends in India. Google Maps is a formidable opponent given its reach and popularity when it comes to navigation.

    Globally, ScoutMyTrip faces resistance from Road Trippers and Furkot, which are slowly building their presence in India. Desi competitors include Easy Roads and Highway Delite. However, the highly experienced Scouts associated with ScoutMyTrip are its USP and the major differentiator from its competitors.

    We are different in terms of us being a very community driven space where our Scouts are the USP to ScoutMyTrip. We encourage road trips for everyone and plan it keeping in mind the likes of our customers.

    ScoutMyTrip – Advisors And Mentors

    ScoutMyTrip’s investor, Z Nation Labs, is also its primary mentor.

    We get great support, industry connects and advice from the leadership team of Z Nation labs which includes Amit Jain, Anup Mehta and Neha Jain.  

    After being incubated by NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups initiative and the Maharashtra State Innovation Society, ScoutMyTrip is getting regular support from its team as well.

    ScoutMyTrip – Awards

    ScoutMyTrip has had its fair share of recognition including the recent incubation by NASSCOM’s 10,000 startups initiative. The honors bestowed on ScoutMyTrip in 2019 are:

    • April 2019 – Selected as one of the Top Startups by NASSCOM as part of the 10,000 Startups Program.
    • March 2019 – Recognized by Startup India / DIPP.
    • February 2019 –Winners of the Maharashtra Startup Week by the Govt. of Maharashtra.
    • January 2019 – Entrepreneur India listed ScoutMyTrip as the top 50 startups to watch out for in 2019.
    • July 2019 – ScoutMyTrip won the Conquest 2019 startup challenge by BITS Pilani which opened new doors in terms of partnerships and investor connections.
    • August 2019 – ScoutMyTrip was invited by DIGITARAYA x tiket.com accelerator programme for expansion into SE Asia.
    ScoutMyTrip Founders Receiving Award at Maharashtra Startup Week
    ScoutMyTrip Founders Receiving Award at Maharashtra Startup Week

    Earlier Awards include being chosen as one of the top 20 travel tech startups by FICCI in 2017, Top 10 startups in India (Silicon India), and many more.

    ScoutMyTrip – Future Plans

    ScoutMyTrip has received a positive response from the traveler community; it has partnered with reputed brands to maintain the flow. Over the last two years, ScoutMyTrip has been aggressively improving its Scout and agent network to service the ever-increasing customer requirements. The company’s business partners include Treebo Hotels, OYO, Agoda, Booking.com, MyChoize self-drive cars, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Honda Cars India to name a few.

    Over the next 1-2 years, ScoutMytrip is looking at consolidating the Indian market where there is a churn in the making as observed by its team.

    For its long-term vision, ScoutMyTrip aspires to be present in every aspect of a road trip. The ScoutMyTrip team has christened this plan as ‘Dashboard to Dhabha’, where the idea is to integrate ScoutMyTrip into cars to make it easier for car owners to conceive a journey. This comprises showing recommendations of other roadtrippers, real and live assistance from Scouts all over the country, detours to explore the countryside, and other provisions. This shall enable ScoutMyTrip to create an extensive database which would then be used to provide up to date, real-time information in assisting holidaymakers.

    After spending a week in Indonesia understanding the travel and tourism industry, the co-founders are considering expansion into a new market next year. They are in discussions with partners to venture into the SE Asian markets and provide a full suite of services not limited to hotels, flights, and last mile connectivity for trips.

    It is hard to navigate through the maze and there is a long way before we as a country make it simpler for startups. And advice is not easy to come by, we had to learn a lot of it ourselves- Vineet Raja

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    FAQs

    Who are the Founders of ScoutMyTrip?

    Deepak Ananth and Vineet Rajan were the founders of ScoutMyTrip. Rajan left the company in 2021.

    What is ScoutMyTrip?

    It is an Indias trip planner, which conflates human intelligence with artificial intelligence to help plan the perfect road trip for individuals. ScoutMyTrip works for all sorts of outings, from short weekend travels to long excursions.

    What is ScoutMyTrip Business Model?

    ScoutMyTrip is a freemium product. Here, the customers can sign up for free on the website and can plan their road trips using the planner for a lifetime. The planner allows the user to add 25-way points (Google allows you just 10) on their route. It suggests places to stay and eat, gas stations, and things to do—all under one platform.

    Who are the competitors of ScoutMyTrip?

    The ScoutMyTrip competitors include:

    • Google Maps
    • Road Trippers
    • Furkot
    • Easy Roads
    • Highway Delite

  • 15 Ways to Earn Money While Travelling

    Travelling is a way one can experience growth in one’s life; it is an escape from the monotonous daily lifestyle that leads us to find peace and tranquillity. There is nothing as good as travelling; it is a fun activity to discover oneself. You get to see new places, witness new cultures, languages, and delicacies, and discover the magnificent beauty of different places.

    Everything needs money, and travelling is no different. Some may think that while travelling, it is not possible to earn money, but think again because when there is a will, there is a way, and in today’s world, there is hardly anything that is impossible. Working and earning while travelling is very much possible. You get the opportunity to experience new places and enjoy doing your favourite things while making money.

    You don’t have to worry about spending all your savings or borrowing money from somewhere else. Most of the time, the budget doesn’t allow us to experience the other part of our life where we get to enjoy travelling, but the idea of earning while travelling seems to be perfect and solves that problem in a subtle way.

    In today’s world, with access to the internet and technology, travellers have started seeking opportunities to earn through their skills and passion while doing the thing that they love the most.

    In this article, we will talk about the ways one can earn money while travelling. So let’s get started.

    How to Earn Money While Travelling?

    1. Teaching English
    2. Writing and Blogging
    3. Tour Guide
    4. Online Selling
    5. Photography
    6. Street Performance
    7. Become a Web Developer
    8. Working In a Bar/Restaurant
    9. Vegetable and Fruit Picking
    10. Volunteer
    11. Freelancing Online
    12. Teach Other People Your Skills
    13. Offer Your Services at Hostels
    14. Disc Jockey
    15. P2P Delivery

    Teaching English

    One of the most popular and amazing jobs that are in high demand is teaching English. This backpacker job is good for people who know the language from basic principles to at least an intermediary level. This job might be challenging, but it is quite lucrative and rewarding.

    All you might need is good speaking skills, a proficient command of the language, and a suitable vocabulary with a certification in TEFL or TESOL, though it is not always compulsory. You can conduct a two- to three-week course for kids as well as adults and build their confidence in just 2 hours a day.

    Places like South Korea, China, Japan, Taiwan, and the Gulf Arab States are in high demand for English trainers. If you follow this path, you will earn a good income while travelling, which you can easily spend on your vacation.

    Writing and Blogging

    The talent for writing and expressing your thoughts in words is an art. Imagine this art culminated with various places and travelling experiences. So, to all those who are good at writing and blogging, you can earn good money with this particular skill.

    Travel blogging can allow you to form your passion into a career by expressing your travel experience to a gaggle of audiences across the world. You can also become a part-time content writer or a contract content writer. Many writers have gotten paid an enormous amount of cash due to their writing skills, and it’s one of the best elements for boosting your portfolio. So all you would need is a good internet connection and a laptop, and you’re good to travel.

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    Tour Guide

    It is confidence and good communication skills that you need to become a guide. If you have these skills, you can easily apply for a guide job in a company; otherwise, you can even do that as a part-time job. If you know the art of engaging a group of individuals with a small amount of humour and excitement, congratulations, you can become a decent tourist guide.

    There are agencies that offer you on-the-spot work, and you’ll earn instantly from it. You’ll chit-chat with the people, commemorate them, and make their experience memorable by informing them about the place in a creative way. All you need is nice research of a couple of places and some leadership skills; this way, you also get to enjoy travelling to new places.

    Online Selling

    One of the most interesting things you can do to earn money is buy local handicrafts, accessories, garments, and other things. Travellers can go search the markets of towns and the local areas that they are visiting to look for those local things, buy them and sell those things online. There are many platforms available where you can sell your items online. You can also do that through social media groups, which are now on-trend in social media marketing. Through this, you can earn a decent amount of cash.

    Photography

    Clicking pictures is so cool. The majority of folks wish to click pictures and take videos of the places we visit and their majestic beauties. Well, for the undeniable fact that there are numerous people out there who are interested in purchasing your pictures. If you have got a good camera and knowledge about capturing pictures and can be a professional photographer, you’ll be able to earn a decent amount of money from this work.

    You can create your website and sell those pictures. There are many websites available where you’ll be able to sell your photos online, like Shutterstock, Getty Images and others. You have got to make sure that the standard of the image is good. If everything goes well, you’ll be able to earn plenty of cash passively.

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    Street Performance

    If you have a beautiful voice, know how to play an instrument, or have good dancing skills, then it’s time to showcase your talent to others. It’s quite common abroad to improve your public speaking skills and earn good money. All you need is some good skills and confidence. Keeping in mind that you simply shall not break any local laws, street performance can be a fantastic idea.

    Become a Web Developer

    If you recognize a way to make an honest website, you bought employment while travelling. Plenty of companies nowadays need web developers to style good websites. They’re hiring freelancers and freshers as they’re a less expensive source. So, while you travel, you’ll be able to easily take up the duty of web development and earn some cash.

    If you do not understand how to form a website, don’t worry. You’ll be able to easily learn it in a time period. There are many online courses available on the net where you’ll be able to learn all the programming skills like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.

    Working In a Bar/Restaurant

    If you wish to get a job that can give you free food and an income, working in a bar or restaurant is suitable for you. Various jobs are easily available for bartenders, amateur managers, and other people who are willing to work in the evening after travelling and exploring places in the morning.

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    Vegetable and Fruit Picking

    A nature lover and explorer will choose such a tremendous job. This is often a seasonal and popular job nowadays, particularly in Australia. All you’d be required to do is to assemble fruits and vegetables from farms. The common reward is cash for this activity, which is negotiable, but you get decent pay. One of the main benefits of this job is that it involves plenty of physical activity, which can help you keep up with your health.

    Volunteer

    NGOs take volunteers to new places who want to work for kids or to develop the living conditions of that place. The expenses for lodging and flooding are mostly solved by the NGOs, and you will get to do some social work and explore the place.

    Freelancing Online

    Want to be a digital nomad? Freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr make it easy to apply for work from clients worldwide. All you need is a sought-after skill. Winning projects can be tough without a track record, but once you have a few jobs and positive feedback, you’ll find steady work. Lucrative fields include web design, research, data entry, graphics, writing, and translation. Travel full-time with Worldpackers, which offers thousands of work exchange opportunities worldwide, allowing you to work a few hours a week in exchange for accommodation and other benefits. Travel on a budget while building a freelance business!

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    Teach Other People Your Skills

    Learning a new language can be fascinating, but there are many other skills that people are eager to acquire. If you are passionate about a particular talent or skill, why not share your knowledge with others? You can spread the word by posting flyers in supermarkets or community centres or advertising your services on social media platforms or in local newspapers. Whether you are a talented musician, a skilled photographer, or a master chef, many people in your community would likely love to learn from you. Sharing your expertise not only gives you the opportunity to make money but also enables you to meet new people, become more connected to your local community, and perhaps even make new friends while travelling. So, if you have a unique skill you are passionate about, don’t hesitate to share it with others. You might be surprised how many people are interested in learning from you!

    Offer Your Services at Hostels

    Hostels can be a lucrative place to earn some extra cash because they, and the people staying in them, are usually quite laid back and open to new ideas. You can make money while staying in a hostel, such as selling things you’ve created, organizing events, teaching yoga, cooking meals, or even offering massages. Utilize your skills to your advantage and earn some money while also meeting new people and enhancing other travellers’ experiences, as well as your own!

    Disc Jockey

    Do you love music and can’t imagine travelling without your equipment? We have found a job that might interest you! Clubs, bars, and restaurants are always looking for DJs who can entertain their customers for extended periods of time. The best part of this job is that most DJs are only required to work in the evening until late at night, which leaves you with the entire day to explore new places. You might even receive free drinks at the bar if you’re lucky! What better way to earn money while pursuing your passion?

    P2P Delivery

    P2P delivery is an alternative to traditional delivery services that can earn you extra cash. If you’re flying to a new city, you can deliver someone’s document and earn $10 to $50. P2P delivery is faster and more reliable than traditional delivery companies. You can take several parcels at once and stay in touch with clients throughout the delivery process. It’s a great way to save on travel expenses while helping others.

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    Conclusion

    Like these, there are plenty of other ways to earn while you travel. The most effective ones are mentioned above. To earn money, it’s not necessary to have a 9 to 5 office job. In the time we are living, one can work from anywhere. Travelling and earnings may be a very suitable choice to earn and learn with utmost enjoyment.
    In today’s world, it’s all about consistency, passion, and dedication to what you select. If you match your abilities, skills, passion, interest, and motivation to those jobs, you’ll surely be able to earn a decent amount of income while travelling. The thought of working while travelling isn’t so new, but how today’s youth carry out their activities is much better than it had been in the past. It’s not as easy as it seems to be, but if you have the desired power and encouragement, you may be intimate.

    FAQs

    How can I earn money while travelling?

    Earn money while travelling by offering freelance services online or by creating travel content for blogs or social media platforms.

    What topics can I write blogs on while travelling?

    You can write travel blogs covering destinations, local cuisines, cultural experiences, adventure activities, and travel tips for different regions.

    Which is the best gig to earn a lot of money while travelling?

    Freelance writing or photography can be lucrative gigs while traveling, offering flexibility and potential for high earnings.

  • List of Top Travel and Tourism Startups in India

    “It will be much more about responsible travel now. We are going to value our freedom a lot more” – Deep Kalra, Founder of MakeMyTrip on impact of Covid on travel industry

    The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest industries in India, it’s a major driver of economic growth globally. India’s tourism industry is experiencing a good period of growth, driven by the flourishing Indian middle class, growth in high spending foreign tourists and coordinated government campaigns to promote ‘Incredible India’. But Due to restrictions linked to Covid-19, the number of foreign tourist in India during 2021 decreased to 1.52 million compared to 2.74 million in 2020, dropping by 44.5%, though foreign exchange earnings grew during the same period, as per the India Tourism Statistics 2022 report. In 2019, India saw 10.93 million foreign tourist arrivals, which dropped by 75% in 2020.

    In 2021, the travel and tourism industry in India contributed around 178 billion U.S. dollars to the country’s GDP. Just a few days ago the Indian government has said that the country’s tourism sector will recover to the pre-pandemic level by mid-2024 , they also said that by 2030, the tourism sector will contribute $250 billion to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).According to the recent India Travel Market Report by Phocuswright, the total Indian travel market stood at US$19.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $40.4 billion in 2025, with online penetration reaching 58% in 2025.

    The booming IT and outsourcing industry has led to a growing number of business trips made by foreigners to India. After Covid, along with work from home, a new trend has come, i.e., workcation for which travel companies are coming up with very good offers and packages. These plans comprise elegant and peaceful places to work with sightseeing and event sports in the evening. These packages are varied and diverse.

    From choosing destinations to connecting with locals and customizing the holiday, the travel startup business in India is looking to add a new dimension to the ever-evolving traveling story.

    Here is the list of successful tour and travel startups.

    Travel & Tourism Industry in India – Key Highlights

    Top Travel and Tourism Startups in India:

    1. MakeMyTrip
    2. ClearTrip
    3. Goibibo
    4. OYO Rooms
    5. Pickyourtrail
    6. ScoutMyTrip
    7. Thrillophilia
    8. Travel Triangle
    9. goMowgli
    10. Tripoto
    11. ExTravelMoney
    12. Nearify
    13. TripHobo
    14. iTraveller
    15. SeekSherpa
    16. SOTC
    17. Expedia

    Travel & Tourism Industry in India – Key Highlights

    Best Tourism and Travel startup – Key Highlights

    Also Read: Travel and Tourism Industry Trends in 2021: Post-Covid Scenario

    Top 20 Travel and Tourism Startups in India

    MakeMyTrip

    Founders Deep Kalra
    Founded In 2000
    Headquarters Gurugram, Haryana

    Best Travel and Tourism Startup in India – MakeMyTrip 

    MakeMyTrip is one of the oldest travel startup in India . The inspiration for this startup came to Kalra when he was booking a holiday to Thailand. He realized that the internet could offer more competitive prices by cutting out the middleman. MakeMyTrip’s mission is to provide customers a one-stop-shop for all their travel needs by providing online travel services that include flight tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets.

    ClearTrip

    Founders Stuart Crighton; Matthew Spacie‎; Hrush Bhatt
    Founded In 2016
    Headquarters Mumbai

    Top Travel Startup – Cleartrip

    Cleartrip, headquartered in Mumbai, was founded by Stuart Crighton, Hrush Bhatt in the year 2005. The company operates an online travel aggregator website for booking flights and train tickets, hotel reservations, and activities in India and the Middle East countries. Cleartrip is one of the few business travel startups in India. It has offices across India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. Cleartrip is another travel tech company in India, started its services to the Persian Gulf nations of Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt. On June 21, 2018, Cleartrip announced the acquisition of Saudi Arabia-based online travel aggregator (OTA) Flyin.

    Clear trip also operates –

    • Cleartrip for Business, an online corporate travel management tool. It is a business travel solution for companies
    • Agent Box, a travel tool for travel agents.
    • Cleartrip Mobile, a travel booking app for consumers.
    • Expressway, to let users store traveller profile and payment details securely to make one-click bookings.
    • Flexifly, a solution that enables flyers to change their travel date and time and switch flights between airlines without any hefty penalties.

    Goibibo

    Founder Ashish Kashyap
    Founded In 2007
    Headquarters Gurugram, Haryana

    Travel Startup in India – Goibibo

    Within few years goibibo became a big payer in travel industry. Goibibo acquired redBus in 2013 to enhance its product offering. The 2016 merger of MMT and Goibibo gave MMT depth of content and an access to a bigger consumer base. It’s core value differentiator is the most trusted user experience, be it in terms of quickest search and booking, fastest payments, settlement or refund processes. Along with the usual services travel startups provide, Goibibo became the no 1 travel startup to introduce real travel booking currency named as Go Cash which can be used without any restrictions or limits of use.

    In small towns, this start up company has built up good trust and about 48% of new users are associated with tier 2 and tier 3 cities, it has seen a 65% increase in transacting users since January this year and that it has been ‘successful’ in consolidating its position as the ‘second largest’ OTA brand in the country.

    OYO Rooms

    Founder Ritesh Agarwal
    Founded In 2012
    Headquarters Gurugram, Haryana

    Best Travel & Hospitality Startup – OYO Rooms

    It is the largest hospitality startup from the list of top hospitality startups in India comprising budget hotels. It is usually one of the first names that pop up in people’s minds when they think of cost efficient hotel bookings in India. The startup works in liaison with existing hotels and offers travellers vacant rooms at a cheaper price. OYO Rooms start at a nominal price of Rs. 999. Besides bulk renting hotels, they have also invested in their own properties as well. Click here to know how exactly OYO Rooms work.

    The users can also opt for OYO Premium which provides a more-than-basic experience. OYO Rooms are located in the prime areas of the city and therefore they ensure travellers of having the best experience, it is also close to the best sight-seeing destinations and various dining options. The startup also raised an investment of $90 million from Softbank earlier in 2016. In 2019, OYO raised $1.5 Billion in Series F funding led by SoftBank Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia India.

    Pickyourtrail

    Founders Hari Ganapathy and Srinath Shankar
    Founded In 2014
    Headquarters Chennai

    Travel and Tourism Startup in India – Pickyourtrail

    Hari Ganapathy and Srinath Shankar got the idea of the startup after their experience from a self-planned trip to Europe in 2012.  This platform uses deep tech to let travellers create, customize and book international vacations. Pickyourtrail considers more than 40 factors like duration, travel time, ratings, etc to build personalized itineraries that travellers can further customize & book.

    After the trip is booked, travellers can use Pickyourtrail’s app to keep track of bookings and get real-time information on flight and weather updates, restaurant recommendations, and on-trip chat support.

    Their goal is to perform best in the tour and travel business when it comes to international trips.

    ScoutMyTrip

    Founders Vineet Rajan; Deepak Ananth
    Founded In 2016
    Headquarters Thane, Maharashtra

    Best Travel and Tourism Startup in India – SCOUT MY TRIP

    ScoutMyTrip is a road trip planner ,It works for all sorts of outings, from short weekend travels to long excursions.

    The motive that the duo has been able to solve through their startup is to collate information that is currently very diversified. Basically it is an information portal that makes travel easy and accessible for anyone. The company plans to connect travellers with people who want to travel on any particular vehicle. It will also facilitate customised tour packages.

    With artificial intelligence, customers can create an itinerary containing the information necessary for their road trip—gas stations, toilets, restaurants, hotels to stay, and points of interest. The human intelligence aspect brings in the ability to personalize information as per one’s needs.

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    Thrillophilia

    Founders Chitra Gurnani and Abhishek Daga
    Founded In 2011
    Headquarters Banglore

    Top Travel startup – Thrillophilia

    The corporate outdoor and experiential learning model adopted by Thrillophilia in its early days, has proven to be of great significance since it was fairly new concept in India.

    Thrillophilia provides you with handpicked adventure travel options. It is best suited for travellers seeking an off-the-beaten-track package for sightseeing, sports, and adventurous activities like water rafting, snorkelling, bungee jumping, and skydiving. The travellers can also curate the best tours and authentic suppliers.

    Travel Triangle

    Founders Sankalp Agarwal, Sanchit Garg, and Prabhat Gupta
    Founded In 2011
    Headquarters Gurugram, Haryana

    Top Travel and Tourism Startup – Travel Triangle

    Travel Triangle operates their services with a versatile team of 450+ people. Travel Triangle is operating as an online marketplace model bringing both travellers and trusted & expert travel agents on a common platform. Travel Triangle is a SaaS-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform to help them manage and analyse customer interactions and data.

    goMowgli

    Founders Anil Alur and Sunil Abhilash
    Founded In 2013
    Headquarters Mysuru, Karnataka

    Top travel and tourism Startup – goMowgli

    goMowgli is a travel startup that had its name inspired by the fictional character we all loved growing up –Mowgli from Jungle Book. It has a fleet of buses across different states (using the concept of “hop-off buses”) and the travellers can buy a pass for a fixed number of days – a week or two. It is suitable for solo travellers and backpackers who want to travel without a fixed plan or do not want to get in trouble of booking cabs while traveling the city.

    goMowgli claims to be India’s first flexible bus network for travellers. Flexible bus network mean is you can catch the bus anytime you want from any place in their network, and get off anytime, at any place.

    goMowgli will tell you the exact location of the nearest bus when you switch on the GPS feature on your smartphone. The app is growing in popularity very fast. At present, their revenue generation is basically based on the passes they sell (Rs. 1700/day) . And their marketing is mainly based on social media and word of mouth.

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    Tripoto

    Founders Anirudh Gupta and Michael Pargal Lyngdoh
    Founded In Headquarter:- Delhi
    Headquarters Delhi

    Top Indian Travel Startup – Tripoto

    Tripoto is a Delhi-based startup founded by Anirudh Gupta and Michael Lyngdoh and one of the best travel startups in India. It allows users to create itineraries for their future trips that they can also share with other travelers. They can share their travel experiences, related content and pictures, itineraries, maps, stories, and reviews.

    The startup has one of the largest communities of travellers in the world where people get a chance to share their travel experiences, discover unique trips and travel itineraries by other travelers and connect with them around the world through the website. Tripoto’s aim is to become the largest source of crowd-sourced travel content platforms in the world by enabling users to share their credible travel information.

    ExTravelMoney

    Founder George Zachariah
    Founded In 2015
    Headquarters Kochi, Kerala

    Travel Startup in India – ExTravel Money

    ExTravelMoney is an online aggregator and marketplace for forex services that bring the hyperlocal eCommerce model to foreign exchange business and is helping users save money on currency exchange and money transfer from and to abroad. Users can use this platform to search for banks and money changers near them who offer these forex services. They can also compare the exchange rates and total cost of a forex service including the services fees, tax charges, even the rating of each forex store they are searching for.

    The users can therefore make an informed decision based on this knowledge and book the cheapest and the best forex services near them directly from their app ExTravelMoney. If you are traveling in a foreign country, foreign exchange is an important component to plan. It isn’t easy to purchase forex due to the time and the hassle it takes in finding the best exchange rates. The website provides travelers with forex dealers across the country to bring them the best available exchange rate in the market and all they need to do is log in to their website, state their forex requirement, and then it connects you to the nearest forex dealer.

    Nearify

    Founders Avelo Roy, Mayank Kumar, Saurav Singh, Vivek Srivastava
    Founded In 2012
    Headquarters Delhi

    Top Travel Startup in India – Nearify 

    Nearify is an app founded by Mayank Kumar, Saurav Singh and Vivek Srivastava in 2012 that provides users with updated information on events that are happening around them. Like information on the city, major tourist attractions, and fairs & festivals happening in the area. All the user needs to do is to key in the name of the city to find listings of meet-ups, workshops, music concerts, and cultural hangout places in their close proximity.

    It is best suited for travelers who want to know what’s happening in other locations of the place they are traveling to and wish to plan their itinerary and also don’t want to miss out on the social events happening in nearby cities or locations.

    TripHobo

    Founders Praveen Kumar, Saket Newaskar, and Karthik Ramachandra
    Founded In 2012
    Headquarters Pune, Maharashtra

    Travel Planning Startup – TripHobo

    TripHobo is a Pune-based travel startup that has an innovative new travel platform where the collective effort of their dedicated team of travel enthusiasts. They are trying to transform its user’s travel experience by making travel more sharable and personally tailored. The platform lets you connect with travel buddies around the world and hence makes your experience even richer and memorable.

    TripHobo is a vacation planning website that is also the world’s leading vacation planning platform on which you can plan trips to about 150,000 destinations worldwide. It lets users discover great itineraries created by travellers just like them.

    iTraveller

    Founders Shiju Radhakrishnan and Sanjay Kumar
    Founded In 2011
    Headquarters Banglore

    Top Travel Startups – iTraveller

    It’s an online travel platform for travellers to explore travel destinations, plan and book their trips in advance. It allows users to dynamically create self-serviced customized travel packages after receiving inquiries from clients.

    The users can also compare reviews and plan their activities and sightseeing for their trips, it also involves native wholesale suppliers who are responsible for the operational aspects of the business of your trip that includes ground handling and fulfillment. iTraveller has created more than 2 lakh trips featuring over 20 travel destinations across the globe and more than 60 native wholesale suppliers from across these destinations. The brand of iTraveller is now changed to Lastminute.

    SeekSherpa

    Founders Sukhmani Singh and Dhruv Raj Gupta
    Founded In 2014
    Headquarters Delhi

    Top Travel and Tourism Startup in India – Seek Sherpa

    The mobile marketplace connects travellers with the local people in the city you are traveling to. These people are called “Sherpas” and are chosen after a thorough background check and verified authenticity. They offer numerous itineraries, popularly known as “micro tours”, from sightseeing, photography tours, and heritage walks and food walks to explore a location from the eyes of a local guide – Sherpa.

    Sherpas can be from any profession and list experiences that will cost you less than Rs. 3,000 per participant. This is a unique feature that SeekSherpa offers, it helps you in traveling better by interacting with the residents of the place you are seeking to explore. This way, your trip is better, well experienced, and more memorable.

    SOTC

    Founder Mr. Vishal Suri (Managing Director)
    Founded In 1949
    Headquarters Mumbai, India

    Top travel and Tourism Startup in India – SOTC

    SOTC India is a leading travel and tourism company active across various travel segments including Leisure Travel, Incentive Travel and Business Travel. It is one of the leaders in segments, namely Escorted Group Tours, Customized Holidays,  and Incentive Travel amongst others. SOTC offers customized holidays around the world, Corporate Tours and provides packages for MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) related travel needs.

    Conclusion

    Travelling is one of the most exciting and important parts of our life. It teaches us a lot. These startups in the tourism industry in India are helping us to make our journey better, safer, and easier. If we have missed out on any travel startup in India, do let us know in the comments.

    FAQs on Travel Startups in India

    How to start a travel business in India or how to start a travel company in India?

    Best tips to start a travel business in India or a travel company in India:

    • Step 1: Prepare a plan for your travel business.
    • Step 2: Brand your travel business along with dealing in legal formalities.
    • Step 3: Manage your funding strategy.
    • Step 4: Pick a great location and hire employees.

    How to start an online travel agency in India?

    The list of requirements to start an online travel agency in India:

    1. Make a thorough research on your competitors and the market.
    2. Find your own niche in the travel industry.
    3. Build your team.
    4. Take a call on a travel website or a travel software, or both.
    5. Make a strategy for marketing.
    6. Target a location.

  • Gojek – A SuperApp that has Everything from Transport to Food Delivery

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Gojek.

    While Indonesia’s digital economy is predicted to rise to $124 billion by 2025, according to a 2020 research by Google, Temasek Holdings, and Bain & Company, the country’s 18,000 islands are spread across a region larger than the European Union, making it highly costly.

    As rivals bulk up in the fast-expanding market, Indonesian ride-hailing and payments provider Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia are merging to form GoTo, a multi-billion dollar internet corporation. Gojek, based in Jakarta, is an Indonesian on-demand multi-service and electronic payment tech company.

    Gojek – Company Highlights

    Company Name Gojek
    Also known as Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa
    Parent Company GoTo
    Headquarters Jakarta, Indonesia
    Industry Technology
    Founded 13 October 2010
    Founders Nadiem Makarim, Kevin Aluwi and Michaelangelo Moran
    Areas Served Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, India, and Malaysia
    Website www.gojek.com

    Gojek – Latest News
    About Gojek and How it Works?
    Gojek – Name, Logo and Tagline
    Gojek – Mission and Vision
    Gojek – Founder and History
    Gojek – Products
    Gojek – Business Model
    Gojek – Revenue and Growth
    Gojek – Partnerships
    Gojek – Funding and Investors
    Gojek – Investments
    Gojek – Acquisitions
    Gojek – Awards and Recognitions
    Gojek – Competitors
    Gojek – Challenges Faced
    Gojek – Future Plans
    Gojek – FAQs

    Gojek – Latest News

    As of May 2021, Indonesian ride-hailing and payments provider Gojek and e-commerce leader Tokopedia are merging to form GoTo, a multi-billion dollar internet corporation.

    The merged company will be Southeast Asia’s largest privately-owned technology enterprise, spanning online shopping, courier services, ride-hailing, food delivery, and other services. By the end of 2021, it intends to go public in Indonesia and the USA. The firms claimed in a joint statement that their previous aggregate worth was $18 billion, based on fundraising in 2019 and early 2020.

    The combination of Gojek and Tokopedia, both of which are backed by global heavyweight investors, comes amid increased competition in Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing and food-delivery businesses. Food delivery, e-commerce, and e-payments are all on the rise as a result of the pandemic’s forced confinement.

    About Gojek and How it Works?

    Gojek (also known as Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa) is a company that creates on-demand smartphone apps for ride-hailing and a number of other services. The company’s app offers services such as transportation and logistics, food ordering and delivery, digital payment, shopping, news, and entertainment, among others, allowing customers to access travel, logistical support, and a variety of other activities with only a few taps on their smartphones.

    Gojek started out as a call center in Indonesia in 2010, connecting customers with courier delivery and two-wheeled ride-hailing businesses. GoRide, GoSend, GoShop, and GoFood were the only 4 services available when the app was first released in 2015.

    Gojek, which is now valued at $10 billion, has evolved into a super app that offers over 20 different services. GO-Academy, a software development training program, is also part of the corporation.

    Gojek – Name, Logo and Tagline

    Because the company’s name is derived from the Indonesian word Ojek, which means “motorbike,” the online service’s first logo portrayed a man riding a motorbike.

    Gojek' s Company logo
    Gojek’ s Company logo

    Michaelangelo Moran, the co-founder, is also noted for designing the firm’s first distinctive logo and branding the entire company, in addition to working as the business’s Brand Director.

    Gojek introduced its new company logo on July 22, 2019. Gojek’s s new brand logo, dubbed “Solv,” symbolizes the company’s evolution from a ride-hailing service to a super app that offers a number of clever methods to minimize difficulties.

    The Gojek brand was introduced with the tagline ‘Cerdikiawan.’ Cerdik connotes dexterity and a positive sense of time. It reflects, according to the creators, how the company solves problems for Indonesia despite the challenges it faces.

    Gojek – Mission and Vision

    Gojek’ s mission statement states, “Gojek is dedicated to creating and scaling up positive socio-economic impact on the ecosystem of users, driver-partners, business and micro-small-medium enterprise partners, as well as service providers.“

    Gojek – Founder and History

    Founded in 2010 with 20 motorcycle riders, the company now has a fleet of over 1 million drivers and, as of May 2018, offers 18 app-based on-demand services. The Gojek app was released in January 2015, and it has approximately 30 million downloads in less than two years. Gojek has teamed up with DBS, Singapore’s largest bank.

    Nadiem Makarim - Co-founder of Gojek
    Nadiem Makarim – Co-founder of Gojek

    Nadiem Makarim, Kevin Aluwi and Michaelangelo Moran co-founded the company Gojek. Nadiem holds degrees from Brown University and Harvard Business School and is an Indonesian native. He spent three years at McKinsey and Co-consulting before founding Gojek, which began as a small phone center with just 20 ojek drivers who ultimately became recruiters.

    Nadiem noticed as a frequent ojek user that ojek drivers spend the majority of their time waiting for passengers, while clients waste time walking around looking for an open ojek. Gojek was created to address this issue by creating a platform that allows drivers and riders to connect quickly and earn more money.

    Gojek’ s edge in negotiating the local regulatory framework and understanding the local market stemmed from the fact that it was founded and controlled by Indonesians. As a result, they were able to include features in their app that benefit both local drivers and local consumers. In 2017, Gojek brought on board 100 additional engineering graduates from India.

    Gojek – Products

    • Go-Pay is the fourth largest e-wallet service in Indonesia.
    • GoRide is Indonesia’s first online motorbike taxi service.
    • Go-Car is a car ride-hailing service.
    • Customers can use the Go-Blue Bird app to request Blue Bird cabs.
    • GoFood is an instant meal delivery service in Indonesia with over 250,000 merchants. Go-Food Festival is a Go-Food-branded offline food-court concept that sells food and beverages from Go-Food vendors.
    • Go-Mart is an app that allows you to shop for groceries at supermarkets that are listed in the Gojek app.
    • Go-Shop, like Go-Mart, allows users to buy items from stores that aren’t listed in Go-Mart.
    • Go-Transmit is an on-demand courier service that allows you to send things and documents inside a single delivery zone with no distance restrictions.
    • For moving heavy products utilizing pickup trucks, single-axle trucks, and single-axle box trucks, Go-Box is identical to Go-Send.
    • Go-Tix is a mobile app that sells entertainment tickets.
    • Go-Med is a mobile app that offers a medication delivery service, has teamed up with HaloDoc to develop the “Apotik Antar” functionality.
    • Customers can request a personal masseuse with Go-Massage.
    • Go-Clean is a professional house cleaning service that operates through an app.
    • Go-Glam is a personal hairdresser app that also offers nail care, waxing, and facial services.
    • Go-Auto is an app-based auto maintenance service that includes car cleaning and emergency repairs.
    • Go-Pulsa is a phone credit top-up service that operates through an app. Only
    • Go-Pay can be used to pay for Go-Pulsa.
    • Go-Bills is a service that allows you to pay your PLN electricity bills, buy PLN electricity tokens, and pay your BPJS insurance premiums all in one place.
    • Gojek’s loyalty program is called Go-Points. Each transaction earns the user a token, which they can exchange for prizes in the app.
    • Go-Play & Go-Studio: The company announced plans to enter the Internet content market through Go-Play, a video streaming service, and Go-Studio, a production firm. In September of this year, GoPlay will formally start its service.
    • Go-Pertamina is an on-demand fuel delivery service in conjunction with Pertamina, Indonesia’s largest oil company. It delivers fuel from the nearest Pertamina gas station to users.
    • Go-Nearby is a directory service that connects Go-Food merchants with clients of Go-Jek.

    Gojek – Business Model

    The Gojek business model works on:

    • Commissions from Companies – Several businesses join Gojek in order to benefit from its seamless operation and increased sales. Gojek, in turn, takes a modest commission on each successful order placed through the app.
    • The consumers’ commission – Gojek is a one-stop shop for its customers, offering a convenient answer to a wide range of issues. It avoids the hassle of having to switch between apps to meet various demands. Gojek also charges a little price on each order for this service, which users are happy to pay in exchange for Gojek’ s convenient and trustworthy services.
    • The Drivers’ Commission – For each order they deliver, individual drivers or delivery partners with Gojek pay a tiny commission to the platform. Given the benefits that the platform provides to drivers, a tiny commission fee seems like a good deal.

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    Gojek – Revenue and Growth

    Gojek’ s adventure has been incredible. Over the last few years, the startup has experienced significant growth.

    Gojek reported that the value of its annualized gross transaction value in 2020 will be USD 12 billion, up 10% from 2019. The year 2020 saw an almost threefold increase in GoPay transactions and the pay-later services.

    “What is suddenly booming is our online investment feature, probably because people find it easy to access,” said Gojek’s co-CEO Andre Soelistyo.

    The company’s grocery service showed a fivefold spike in annualized GTV, indicating that more people are relying on it for shopping during the pandemic. The number of merchants registered with GoFood surged by 80% to 900,000. This year, Gojek did not reveal which vertical contributed the most to its revenue.

    Gojek – Partnerships

    It established a partnership with Blue Bird, a large Indonesian taxi firm, in 2016. It also launched Go-Car, which expanded ride-hailing from motorcycles to vehicles, and Go-Auto, which provides on-demand mechanic services, in the same year. It was Indonesia’s first online transportation system by August 2016.

    It teamed with Google Maps to handle their GPS. Entertainment, Google Play, and MNC Vision are among the other collaborations. Suzuki Finance Indonesia, AEON Credit Service, and Bill Payment PLN, the national electricity supplier, and BPJS Kesehatan, the national health insurance provider.

    Gojek is teaming up with Unilever in September 2020. Gojek has partnered with Unilever through the freshly launched GoToko as part of this relationship. GoToko is a B2B digital platform that connects Indonesian MSMEs with global consumer products corporations.

    Gojek – Funding and Investors

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    May 10, 2021 Corporate Round $300M Telkomsel
    Nov 17, 2020 Corporate Round $150M Telkomsel
    Jun 3, 2020 Series F $375M Facebook, PayPal
    Mar 10, 2020 Series F $1.2B Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Visa
    Mar 4, 2019 Series F $100M PT. Astra International Tbk
    Oct 30, 2018 Series F $920M Google, JD.com, Tencent
    Feb 12, 2018 Series E $1.5B Tencent
    Aug 4, 2017 Series E – –
    Aug 4, 2016 Series D $550M Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Warburg Pincus
    Apr 1, 2016 Series C $170M –

    Gojek – Investments

    Date Organization Name Round Amount
    May 12, 2021 MPPA Post-IPO Secondary IDR144.9B
    Mar 9, 2021 LinkAja Series B –
    Dec 18, 2020 Jago Post IPO-Equity $160M
    Feb 17, 2020 Blue Bird Group Corporate Round $30M
    Jan 29, 2020 ZULU Corporate Round –
    Jul 1, 2019 rebel Foods Series D $125M
    May 7, 2019 Safeboda Series B –
    Feb 3, 2019 JD.ID Venture Round –
    Oct 31, 2018 escapex Funding Round –
    Aug 10, 2018 PasarPolis Series A –

    Gojek – Acquisitions

    Acquiree Name About Acquiree Date Amount
    WePay WePay is an online payments services provider. Sep 14, 2020 –
    Moka Moka is an Indonesian fintech startup that focuses on building mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) for small and medium businesses. Apr 20, 2020 $130M
    AirCTO AirCTO is an AI-powered recruitment platform that helps companies recruit top developers. Jun 12, 2019 –
    Coins.ph Coins.ph delivers financial services over mobile to people who are currently unserved by traditional banks. Jan 18, 2019 $72M
    Promogo Promogo is a platform that enables brands to advertise on the body of individually owned vehicles. Sep 17, 2018 –
    PT RUMA To increase dignity, income, and access for the poor through technology. Dec 25, 2017 –
    Midtrans Midtrans empowers eCommerce through technology. Dec 15, 2017 –
    Kartuku Kartuku is a third party processor and payment service provider delivering end-to-end, mission critical payment solutions in Indonesia. Nov 15, 2017 $50M
    LOKET LOKET is the first event management platform in Indonesia that gives the freedom of selling tickets on one’s own website. Aug 8, 2017 –
    Leftshift Technologies We build loveable products for iOS and Android Nov 8, 2016 –

    Gojek – Awards and Recognitions

    Gojek is the only firm from Southeast Asia to reach Fortune’s list of “56 Companies That Changed the World” for 2017. Gojek was the first Southeast Asian firm to be named twice in Fortune’s Top 50 Firms That Changed The World list, rising to number 11 out of 52 global companies in 2019.

    Other international honors include the Top Performer in ASEAN Award in 2017, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and the Superior Products and Services Award in 2016.

    Among the national honors are –

    • Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
    • Top 3 Brand Performer and Top 3 Most Powerful Transportation/Logistic Brands,
    • Top 3 Netizen Choice in Online Transportation,
    • The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
    • The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
    • The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valuable Indonesian Brands 2019,
    • The BrandZ Top 15 Most Valu Best Indonesia Mobile App 2015,
    • Best Startup Category Work Life Balance,
    • Most Admired CEO in Indonesia 2017, and
    • Most Creative in Solving Economic Challenges 2017.

    Gojek – Competitors

    The top competitors in Gojek’s competitive set are Lyft, Grab, Uber, ComfortDelGro, Gett, MOIA, Ryder, Easy Taxi Services, and Space Neobank.

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    Gojek – Challenges Faced

    Grab has dominated the ride-hailing sector in Singapore since the Grab-Uber merger. Grab will have to enhance its service quality now that Gojek, an Indonesian startup, has joined the Singapore market. One of the biggest issues Gojek is facing is a driver shortage, as many self-employed drivers are now listed with Grab.

    Gojek is looking forward to organize driver recruitment efforts and offer larger incentives to potential drivers in order to overcome this. Allowing drivers to withdraw money from their virtual wallets is one of them, as is a points system that can be converted into cash and a minimum hourly wage.

    Another issue that Gojek is dealing with is a lack of demand. With so many transportation alternatives in Singapore, Gojek will have to rethink its product to stand out from the crowd. To address this, Gojek will need to expand its service offerings, such as its proposal to offer housecleaning services.

    Gojek’s quick expansion and market dominance have sparked widespread media attention, as well as criticism from traditional taxi and ojek providers. The Minister of Transportation briefly stopped Gojek and other ride-hailing firms from operating. The restriction was met with widespread opposition, with the hashtag #SaveGojek becoming Indonesia’s most popular trending subject on Twitter.

    The ban was removed the same day when President Joko Widodo denounced it, saying that the government should not limit innovation and that the prohibition will have a negative impact on the lives of many Indonesians who rely on Gojek’s services. Budi Karya Sumadi, Indonesia’s Minister of Transportation, enacted a new regulation for online taxis in October 2017. The former PM 26, which regulated the use of private cars for public transportation, was replaced by PM 108.

    Gojek – Future Plans

    A new ride-hailing service has launched. Gojek plans to expand its operations outside of Indonesia this year, according to co-CEO Kevin Aluwi.

    “Over the last few years, we’ve definitely invested relatively smaller amounts in our markets outside of Indonesia. But, we think this is the year where we really want to spread our wings and be a regional and global business,” Aluwi, founder of Gojek, added.

    Gojek began as a ride-hailing service in Indonesia in 2010 and has subsequently expanded into food delivery, digital payments, and logistics. It now has a presence in over 200 cities across five Southeast Asian nations, with Indonesia remaining its most important market.

    Aluwi also declined to comment on “merger speculations,” saying Gojek’s priority is to grow its business. Gojek is “extremely optimistic” about 2021, he added.

    “We do think that 2021 is going to be a growth year and, more importantly, we spent 2020 really investing in a lot of the business and product and operational fundaments, such that profitability and long-term sustainability looks meaningfully better year-over-year,” he said.

    Gojek – FAQs

    What does Gojek do?

    Gojek is a company that creates on-demand smartphone apps for ride-hailing and a number of other services. The company’s app offers services such as transportation and logistics, food ordering and delivery, digital payment, shopping, news, and entertainment, among others, allowing customers to access travel, logistical support, and a variety of other activities with only a few taps on their smartphones.

    Which country is Gojek based in?

    Gojek is an Indonesian company.

    Who founded Gojek?

    Nadiem Makarim, Kevin Aluwi and Michaelangelo Moran co-founded the company Gojek.

    How does Gojek make money?

    On each successful order placed using the app, Gojek charges a tiny commission fee. Gojek is a one-stop-shop for its customers, offering a convenient answer to a wide range of issues. It saves time by eliminating the need to switch between apps to meet different demands.

    Which companies do Gojek compete with?

    The top competitors in Gojek’s competitive set are Lyft, Grab, Uber, ComfortDelGro, Gett, MOIA, Ryder, Easy Taxi Services, and Space Neobank.

  • Guiddoo World – Your Personal Tour Guide

    Note: This Startup has been shut

    Have you ever been to a new travel destination, and felt clueless about what to do? Even though most of us today do research online before visiting any destination, there is a possibility that we may miss out on things. Booking tickets to your favourite tourist spot, reserving seats for that river cruise or spa massage, or hiring guides to guide you through the historical monuments, lots of planning is required to make the holiday experience perfect and Guiddoo is here to help you.

    With features such as an Audio-visual guide, information related to history and trivia and free concierge services, Guiddoo solves all your in-destination travel needs. With its growing popularity among Globetrotters.

    This article will give you an insight into The Company Profile of Guiddoo, Its Business Model, Revenue, Founders, Funding, Story, Growth, Competitors etc.,

    Guiddoo World – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Guiddoo World
    Headquarter Mumbai
    Founder Vineet Budki, Nidhi Varma, Prashant Choudhary, Biswajeet Karmakar
    Sector Travel
    Founded 2014
    Registered Entity Name Guiddoo World Travels Pvt. Ltd.

    Guiddoo World – About
    Guiddoo World – Industry Details
    Guiddoo World – Founders
    Guiddoo World – The Idea and starting up
    Guiddoo World – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Guiddoo World – Services
    Guiddoo World – Revenue Model
    Guiddoo World – Customer Acquisition
    Guiddoo World – Funding
    Guiddoo World – Challenges
    Guiddoo World – Competitors
    Guiddoo World – Awards & Recognitions
    Guiddoo World – Advisors and Mentors
    Guiddoo World – Future Plans

    Guiddoo World – About

    Guiddoo aims to be a One-Stop Platform for travelers to discover and book great travel experiences during their international trip.

    It provides unique and customized travel packages. The platform uses intelligent data points from over 4000+ travel agents as well as analyses 1Mn+ Trend Points on the Internet and Social media to build smart itineraries.

    Guiddoo World – Industry Details

    Travel apps rank 7th among the most downloaded category of apps. According to Criteo, currently, more bookings are being made through apps as compared to desktop or mobile web. Also, travelers make 80% of last-minute booking on the app. As such, Guiddoo being an app with many features like a step-by-step tour, key sights, timeline, history & trivia, images gallery, tourist information and booking facilities is fast gaining popularity among travelers.

    Again, the Market Size for in-destination tours and activities will reach approximately $200 billion by 2020, as projected by PhocusWright. Guiddoo focuses on Indian and China outbound travelers to 15 destinations, the market value of which is approximately $20 billion annually.  

    Guiddoo World – Founders

    Vineet Budki, Nidhi Varma, Prashant Choudhary and Biswajeet Karmakar are the founders of Guiddoo.

    Founder Guiddoo
    Vineet Budki and Nidhi Varma

    Vineet Budki is the CEO & Founder of Guiddoo World, Guiddoo World Travels Pvt Ltd & Guiddoo World FZ LLC. He founded Guiddoo  – initially as an audio guide that later pivoted to a Marketplace for Tours and Activities in 2013. Vineet has a rich experience of  15 years in the Technology, Travel and Airline industry and has worked with companies like Rocket Internet, Emirates Airlines, Paytronic Networks and Tata Consultancy Services in the past. He started his first company Butel in the year 2009  – an online comparator for DTH Services, which later became the online arm of Videocon d2h.

    Nidhi Varma is a graduate of Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. Prior to Guiddoo, she worked with Emirates Airlines.

    Prashant Choudhary is a graduate from IIT Kharagpur and worked with Erricson as a software developer and mobile team head prior to joining Guiddoo. Currently, he is the Chief Technical Officer at Guiddoo.

    Biswajeet Karmakar is a graduate from Mumbai University, and prior to Guiddoo, he worked with organizations like E-cell, Unitech Marketing Services and Computer Society of India, KJSIEIT. Biswajeet is the director of sales at Guiddoo.

    Guiddoo World – The Idea and Starting Up

    It was 2013 when Vineet and Nidhi were on a trip to Paris. It was a much-awaited trip and they did not want to miss even a bit of it. But unfortunately, things did not go as per plan.

    The idea came to Nidhi and me while on a trip to the Eiffel Tower in Paris where we faced a lot of issues due to the language barrier and outdated information.  

    While it was Nidhi’s dream to visit the Eiffel Tower with her life partner, when they went to visit, they found that it was closed. They waited for the next day only to find that there was a huge line and they had to wait for hours to take the lift to the top of the tower. As the couple had time constraints, they could not visit the Louvre Museum. It was during this time that the couple felt the need for a mobile app, which could guide the travelers through the monuments and landmarks aided by audio and video.

    After coming back from Paris, the couple started doing research around key Indian Tourist places frequented by travelers and started working towards building a smartphone-friendly audio-visual travel guide platform. Finally, the couple launched Guiddoo in 2014. The startup was incubated at the Government of Dubai’s In5 incubator for Hi-Tech Startups.

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    The name for our startup came from the word “Guide” and the tagline was developed once we shifted to the Tours and Activities Module.  

    Guiddoo’s tagline is “Your Personal Tour Guide”  

    Guiddoo World – Services

    Guiddoo is a platform to discover and book in-destination experiences. Initially, It was developed just as an audio guide, which later pivoted to tours and activities booking platform.

    Currently, Guiddoo is helping its customers discover and book in-destination activities and experiences across 15 countries.

    It provides a platform for travel agents working on Indian travelers, traveling internationally to find and book great experiences. The USP of the platform is that it provides concierge services free of cost to the customers. The app evolves over time based on ratings of travelers using the platform to curate meaningful experiences like tours, activities, dining, shopping and entertainment options for other users.

    It has made tie-ups with big brands like MakeMyTrip, Amadeus India, Mekong Tourism and World Free Zones Organization.    

    The app is available both on android and iOS platforms. Besides the company has dedicated B2B and B2C platforms. It is very convenient to use during traveling as it does not require a live internet connection, once downloaded. Guiddoo has a dedicated app for every city it covers.

    Guiddoo also has standalone apps for some famous landmarks which include, Taj Mahal, The Statue of Liberty, the Colosseum in Rome, Angkor Wat and also newly developed tourist attraction like Burj Khalifa towers in Dubai.  

    At present, It offers guides on 21 monuments in the English language.  

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    Guiddoo World – Revenue Model

    Guiddoo’s revenue source can be divided into 3 segments – Tour & Activity sales, Audio-Video guide and B2B Subscription Model.  

    Guiddoo revenue model

    Guiddoo World – Customer Acquisition

    Almost 1 year of its inception, Guiddoo has been downloaded by over 1,00,000 users. Besides, over 2,00,000 visitors visited the company’s website just within 2 months of the launch of their website. According to Vineet, personal reach out and information exchange via social media platforms were the keys channel used for informing everyone about Guiddoo.

    Guiddoo has focused a lot on building the experience part of a customer’s travel while they are on the ground which includes offering superior products with great service levels by developing technology around them. We believe this has contributed a lot to our brand and helped us in garnering more users and their loyalty.  

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    Guiddoo World- Funding

    In March 2019, Guiddoo raised an undisclosed amount of funding from  SOSV & Artesian. It plans to use the Series B funding to expand its operations in China. The company is also planning to add new destinations of the Middle- East and Africa into its package to attract the Chinese market.

    Guiddoo has raised  funding worth $1.1 million in 4 rounds.

    Date Stage Amount Investor
    February 2015 Seed $400K Angel Investors
    June 2017 Pre-Series A $300 k Pawan Borle, Nirmal Singh, Manish Prasad, Vineet Varma & Abhai S. Rao
    July 2018 Series A $800 k Rennie Ratadia (Singapore), Stephen Dmello (Dubai) & Angshuman Sarkar (India)
    March 2019 Series B Undisclosed SOSV & Artesian

    Guiddoo World – Challenges

    Some of the major challenges faced by Guiddoo are-

    • Securing Funds.
    • Making meaningful partnerships
    • Designing an accurate revenue model

    A strong team, good business networking and a well-tailored product helped the company deal with these challenges.

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    Guiddoo World – Competitors

    Guiddoo’s major competitors are – Misement, Viator GetYourGuide, AudioCompass and Thrillophilia. As said by Vineet, most of their competitors are in the west as the segment is still evolving in India

    Guiddoo World – Achievements

    Some major achievements of Guiddoo are-

    • 1,00,000 users downloaded Guiddoo just within around 1 year of its inception.
    • It has been able to attract 2.00,000 web visitors just within 2 months of launching its website.
    • It has been able to attract and secure funding from international investors.
    • Secured tie-ups with big brands like MakeMyTrip, Amadeus India, Mekong Tourism and World Free Zones Organization.  
    • It has a partnership with over 4500 travel agents.
    • It has served over 30,000 customers with over 65,000 activities.

    Guiddoo World – Awards & Recognitions

    • Best Outbound Operator for 2018  by Mr. KJ Alphons Tourism Minister of India at SATTE Awards 2018
    • Travel Innovation Summit, Florida – Runners Up
    • Red herring 100  
    • Top 100 Startups to Watch 2019 – SutraHR

    Guiddoo World – Advisors and Mentors

    • Pawan Borle – SVP, Fly Dubai    
    • Victor Sunyer – Partner, Delta Partners
    • Gaurav Chiripal – CEO – Quadlabs

    Guiddoo World – Future Plans

    The company has great plans for the future. Some of its major future plans include-

    • Covering 100+ monuments and tourist attractions around the world.
    • Making the audio guide available in 9 languages including Spanish (Spain & South American), French, Italian, Hindi, Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin), Korean, Japanese, Arabic and Russian.
    • Starting Operations in China by 2019.          
    • Building a pan India distribution network for its tours, activities and holiday products.

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    FAQs

    Who is Guiddoo World’s CEO?

    Vineet Budki

    How much revenue does Guiddoo World generate?

    $5.9M in revenue

    When was Guiddoo World founded?

    2013

  • Ithaka Travel- Your Personalized Trip Planner

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by the organization it is based on.

    There is a breed of travelers, who hates the one size fits all travel packages. Those, who want to explore places at their own pace, rather than rushing through the hyped sites of a destination. For those who prefer their holidays to be planned with a personal touch over any auto-generated itinerary, there is Ithaka. This Mumbai based platform plans your trips just the way it fits you best with the assistance from experienced travelers.

    Know more about Ithaka Startup Story, Founders, Business Model, Funding etc., in the article ahead.

    Ithaka – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Ithaka
    Headquarter Mumbai
    Founders Rahul Singh & Mithilesh Said
    Sector Travel Planning App
    Founded 2015
    Parent Organization Traveljunkie Solutions

    Discover more about Ithaka:

    About Ithaka and How it Works
    Travel Market in India
    Founders of Ithaka and Team
    How was Ithaka Started
    Ithaka – Name and Logo
    What is Ithaka
    Ithaka – Revenue Model
    Ithaka – Funding and Investors
    Ithaka – User Acquisition
    Ithaka – Startup Challenges
    Ithaka – Competitors
    Ithaka – Growth

    About Ithaka and How it Works

    Ithaka was launched as an in-destination experience booking website. Today Ithaka is a chat-based travel planning app, that covers destinations from Thailand, Bali, Europe, UAE, Singapore, Malaysia and Turkey. The Ithaka app is available for both Android and iOS.

    Our vision is to build a seamless ecosystem for travel. We want to take ownership of your travel experience from the first spark of inspiration, to the very last day of your trip, we want to stay involved, keep it personal and help you every step of the way.

    Ithaka is a free travel planning platform focused on travelers who want to plan and execute their own trips and don’t want to book a pre-made package.

    Ithaka is helping travelers through the 3 most important parts of trip planning:

    a. Discovery – Through product features that mirror users’ behavior online (first shortlist by a visual stimulus, matching by preferences, etc)

    b. Decision Making – Driven by influencers and a smart product which understands ‘good travel choices’ (anchors, time to catch transport, is the trip rushed, etc)

    c. Trip Management – Beautiful, detailed itinerary which can be booked in part or full with a single click in-app with real-time costing

    On Ithaka, you would connect over chat with a Travel Influencer who’s been there done that. You can seek validation around your ideas and find all the answers you seek or if you are someone who is too busy to plan the trip you could get your whole itinerary planned to the very minute details. The Influencer and the product help you structure the whole trip plan and gives you detailed information that will ensure a smooth travel experience.

    Along with that, you can do all your bookings (flights, hotels, activities, visa, forex) through the app as well, ensuring you are sorted end to end.

    We believe that travel is the best way to break down barriers between people. If we can help more people travel to newer places and experience them well, we would have played our part in moving the world towards a more unified, harmonious future, and that’s a vision worthy of anyone’s life’s work. There is a need for one product to be the anchor app of their trip. Ithaka is trying to do just that and define how the next generation of travel looks like.

    Ithaka has pivoted twice–

    • From the experiences booking platform to chat based travel planning in 2015.
    • In 2018  the company pivoted from in-house travel experts to a community of Travel Influencers to help people plan trips. This shift allowed Ithaka to be more scalable.

    Travel Market in India

    According to UNWTO, the Indian outbound travel market is going to grow to 50 million travelers by 2020. Out of this, the leisure travel market is 30%. Ithaka is catering to the Indian Millennial travel audience which is around 5 million travelers by 2020. The average spends by an Indian traveler on an outbound trip is about $800. The rough market size Ithaka is dealing in is $4 billion right now.

    Travel is going to change fundamentally in the next 5 years as a new batch of youngsters enter the job market and have the disposable income to go out and explore the world. Their needs and ambitions while traveling are going to be quite different than what we see now. The overall market will keep increasing. Many profitable businesses can emerge in the thriving travel market in India.

    Ithaka Services

    Founders of Ithaka and Team

    Rahul Singh and Mithilesh Said are the founders of Ithaka.

    Ithaka Founders
    Rahul Singh and Mithilesh Said – Founder, Ithaka

    Rahul Singh is the CEO of Ithaka. He is an IIT Bombay, 2012 grad. He worked at Gulf Talent, a Dubai based market leader job portal for the Gulf region with over 1 million users a month. started off as an Analyst and worked across Product, Operations, Sales, Marketing before becoming the first Product Manager there.  Rahul was CPO at Ithaka till March 2019. He took over as the CEO when Ameya Sahasrabudhe left Ithaka.

    Mithilesh Said is the CTO of Ithaka. He is  Mumbai University, 2014 graduate.  He started off at a services company called Genii that got acquired by Practo. One of the best techies in the Mumbai circle, he is amazing at designing tech solutions and has built the Ithaka product from the ground up.  

    Ithaka’s current team size is 30.

    Ithaka’s work culture is centered around freedom and ownership and a love for travel. The team is empowered to independently execute projects and drive impact led by strong direction from the founders. The best part is that the employees can work from anywhere they want, so a lot of folks sometimes travel and work.  

    As long as work gets done, everyone has the freedom to manage their personal lives. Everyone has to travel internationally once a year and there’s a specific trip fund budget for each person. We have done this so that people can be close to travel and feel the problem that they are solving.

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    How was Ithaka Started

    Ithaka was started by Rahul Singh and Ameya Sahasrabudhe. Rahul and Ameya were friends from IIT Bombay. Both of them loved traveling and the inspiration to startup Ithaka came from their own travels. They saw that there was a specific need for discovering things to do and booking it online, especially in South East Asia. To validate it, they did a pilot run in Bangkok to see if people are interested and it came back positive. So they went about creating the first prototype: a mobile website for booking things to do and launched it in the market. That is where they first got the inspiration for a chat-based travel planning model.

    While trying to sell activities and in-destination experiences to travelers on the ground, the Ithaka team noticed that there are many people who keep asking for travel advice. This made the team come up with the idea of a chat-based travel planning app.

    We added a chat widget to the website. Interestingly we also started seeing more bookings as we helped more travelers on the chat which convinced us that there is a big business to be made out of this.  

    Ithaka’s name is inspired by an illustrated poem by Constantine P Cavafy. This poem talks about how the journey is rewarding and the destination doesn’t matter and that’s the core spirit of Ithaka as well – to drive experiential travel that impacts a traveler’s life.

    Ithaka Logo

    Since the poem was about a sea voyage and that’s also related to travel, Ithaka’s logo is also made as a boat.

    Ithaka – Revenue Model

    Ithaka is free for travelers.

    Ithaka earns revenue through Itinerary bookings that travelers do after they plan it with Influencers: these are bookings of experiences, hotels, flights, transport, etc. We have partnered with various operators to process these bookings and make commissions on them.

    Soon Ithaka will be experimenting with a new monetization model where travelers will have the option to avail premium concierge services to make their bookings in the most optimized way for their route, budget and preferences.

    Ithaka – Funding and Investors

    Ithaka has raised 2 rounds of funding.

    Funding Date Funding Stage Funding amount Investors
    July 2016 Angel $325K Angel Investors
    November 2018 Seed Undisclosed Thomas Cook

    Ithaka is the only travel tech company funded by Thomas Cook India.

    Thomas Cook sees us as a major strategic play in building for the millennial travelers of India. Post-funding we have gained a lot of insight into the travel space that we lacked before. We have also started giving forex and visa services which we couldn’t before. And of course, the capital infusion has accelerated our growth path.    

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    Ithaka – User Acquisition

    Ithaka was able to attract its initial set of customers organically, through social media. As said by Rahul, Ithaka spent zero money on getting its first customers. Ithaka spread awareness about its services in the Facebook groups where travelers were already discussing questions around their trips.  Ithaka team also posted heavily on Quora to gain its first customers.

    Content marketing, SEO and also word of mouth publicity has worked quite well for Ithaka.

    If you have built a product that is truly valuable for the users, you grow organically. Our first 10,000 users came primarily from word of mouth of existing travelers.

    Ithaka – Startup Challenges

    The biggest challenge faced by Ithaka was while pivoting from in-house travel experts to the community of travel influencers for planning trips.  It was a difficult phase for the company. However, the Ithaka team solved it by being lean and experimenting at a small scale.  The company started with just 3 Travel Influencers which it got from the existing traveler base.  

    We first ensured that the traveler experience wasn’t suffering due to this shift from travel experts to travel influencers, and then we scaled it slowly while making the product better.

    Ithaka – Competitors

    For the Ithaka team, the plan is not to compete at all but to create the most connected travel eco-system ever built.

    There are many apps for travel planning like Tripoto, Klook, Trip Planner and Travel Triangle which are competing with Ithaka. However, all these apps have their own USPs. Ithaka is even partnering with companies like Thomas Cook, Klook, etc. to bring the best of booking experiences to travelers on the app. For the Ithaka team, Airbnb has always been a source of inspiration.  

    What Ithaka primarily helps with is deciding what to do e.g. if a traveler is going to Europe, which cities will be the best for him. Where should he stay, what are things to do which he should not miss out on. There are no travel companies like Ithaka which help travelers make these crucial decisions and plan their trip properly.

    Ithaka – Growth

    The growth milestones achieved by Ithaka are-

    • Helped over 50,000 travelers.
    • The company has grown about 5 times in 2018-2019.
    • The company is doing great in terms of customer relationship management. Its NPS(Net Promoter Score) is 70.
    • Currently, Ithaka is live for 14 destinations across the world.

    In the next 2 years, Ithaka plans to be live for any destination in the world and would expect to be growing 100x from the current scale.

  • Top 10 New Trends in Business Travel You Should Be Preparing For In 2019

    The world of business travel is rapidly changing and keeping up to date with its latest trends and shifts can help startup companies and small businesses alike to identify the opportunities and capitalize on it. Without further ado, here are the top ten trends in business travel you must be preparing for this year.

    More Startups and SMBs to Participate In International Travel  

    Startup companies and small and mid-size businesses are expected to become prominent players in the corporate travel sector in 2019. This is due to the increasing number of employees being employed by these companies – according to the October 2018 Small Business Optimism Index from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) – “small businesses continue to support the 3%+s growth of the economy and add significant numbers of new workers to the employment pool.”

    Read more: OYO heads for global expansion

    As this sector thrive and flourish, we can expect that more startups and SMBs will increase their investment in business travel in order to support their growth and build relationships with like-minded companies around the world.

    Sharing economy to gain traction among C-Level executives

    One of the biggest trends that have shaped the business travel landscape for the past recent years is the sharing economy. Sharing economy companies such as Airbnb and Lyft have evolved from niche disruptors into a mainstream leader for both consumers and even companies with C-level business travelers. In fact, the 2018 Business Travel Ridesharing Habits Survey from Skift revealed that a whopping 90.3% of employes now allow their travelers to use ridesharing services for work.

    Read more: Success story of ride sharing service Ola

    While slower to advance, shared economy lodging options are also gaining measurable traction, especially among the younger generations. According to TripActions 2018 State of Business Travel Report, more than one-third of surveyed travelers said they book Airbnb-type accommodations, along with boutique hotels as a way to fulfill their desire for a unique travel experience.

    Personalization as the most important loyalty driver in business travel

    Gone were the days when companies only use earned points in flights, hotel stays and car rentals to keep their employees engage with their business travel initiatives. Nowadays, more and more travel managers are shifting their focus from earning points to providing more personalized travel experience for their road warriors.

    Read more: Success story of Makemytrip

    This is according to the same 2018 survey from TripActions, which found that 21% of business travelers don’t belong to any hotel loyalty program and are less interested in loyalty programs in general. Instead, these travelers seek more hands-on experience with their business trips, with many seeking self-booking capabilities in their hotel, car rental, and flight service companies as a way to ensure they’ll receive services tailored to their business travel needs.

    A Mix of Artificial Intelligence and Human Touch to Power Travel Services

    Self-booking and automation are without a doubt the biggest disruptors changing the way business travelers fulfill nearly every aspect of their travel needs these days. However, more organizations now realize that while these technologies can be efficient, they can’t solve all business issues without help from a human being.

    To address such conundrum, most travel managers are now seeking to achieve a balance between tech-assisted and human-focused services. One of the solutions being eyed to achieve such balance is through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-powered algorithms. Through this solution, companies will be able to make sound decisions fast about when to provide assistance and will help them prioritize the most pressing issues facing their travelers by predicting their needs.

    More Travel Managers To Focus More on Comfort of Travelers

    While ever-changing, the issues facing business travelers in 2019 will remain the same – canceled flights, jet lag, adapting to a foreign culture, and security and safety risks. Countering these issues, therefore, will be the utmost priority of most travel managers as they plan to revise their travel policies in order to cater for more enjoyable, healthier, and more productive trips.

    Corporate Travel as a Major Employee Perk

    Another new trend in business travel is the greater collaboration that is taking place between travel managers, HR managers, and recruiters.

    Travel is fast becoming a perk new employees are working for – according to TripActions 2018 survey, 92% of all business travelers said they want to travel for work, 90% said they see traveling as a perk of their job, while 80% feel more excited about their job after traveling. A separate study from Hilton Hotels and Resorts also revealed that 39% of respondents would not join a company that did not offer travel as part of the job.

    Read more: How to inspire employees to work harder?

    With these statistics, we can expect that more organizations will take advantage of this trend to attract new talents in 2019.

    Bleisure As the New Norm

    Mixing leisure and business travel has become a widely-adopted practice among most corporate travelers nowadays.

    Recent research from Expedia revealed that on average,  bleisure travelers take more than six business trips per year, and more than 60% of business trips in 2017 were extended for leisure purposes. In the U.S., the number of business travelers opting for bleisure is on par with the multi-national average of 60% – a nearly 40% increase in bleisure travel since 2016.

    Interactive Solutions as Key To More Simplified Experience

    According to a 2017 survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), program simplification is a strategic priority for corporate travel managers heading into 2019.

    The rationale behind simplification includes the benefits that both the organization and employees can gain, including improved traveler satisfaction, reduced cost, and time savings. This growing demand for simplified travel experience is leading to more request for interactive tools which enable travelers to book, manage, customize, and monitor their trips all in one place.

    Managing Cost to Continue as the Major Challenge

    As the costs of airfare and hotel lodging across popular business travel destination continue to increase, we can expect that managing travel cost will remain a hard issue to tackle for most organizations in 2019. According to a recent GBTA Forecast Report, hotel prices can be expected to rise by an average of 3.7% in 2019, and flight costs will increase by 2.6%.

    Face-to-Face Meeting To Become More Critical  

    Despite the rise of new communication platforms such as video calls that allow virtual interaction, many organizations still say face-to-face meetings will continue to play a critical part in their organization’s success. While virtual communication has significantly improved, most executives are still seeking the authentic human connection present during face-to-face meetings, as it enables them to build lasting business relationships.

    Read more: Corporate gifting ideas to improve the official relationships

    In fact, according to Harvard research, face-to-face requests were 34 times more likely to garner positive results than emails. A global survey also revealed that 67% of senior executives and managers also said their organization’s productivity would increase if superiors communicated face-to-face more often.

    With all these trends taking place nowadays, it is more imperative than ever for both travel managers and employees to keep an open eye on the shifts that are most likely to impact the efficiency of their business trips this year forward. Above all, startup company owners and managers should continue focusing on ensuring the safety, productivity, and comfort of their travelers each time they hit the road.

    This is a guest post by Reza Choudhury who runs an international chauffeur company that helps facilities managers, travelmanagers, event managers, executives assistants, c-level executives and office managers, arrive at their destination on-time and stress-free. He does this by providing an app & online platform that allows users to schedule multiple bookings while watching chauffeur’s arrive in real-time. His passion is spending time with his family and playing table tennis.