iTraveller raises $1M to help you build your own holiday packages

Indian travel startup iTraveller has raised US$1 million in series A funding from ah! Ventures, LetsVenture, and Mantra Ventures.

The Bangalore-based startup provides users with the option of selecting holiday packages or customizing one of their own on the portal. iTraveller also provides curated suggestions for holiday packages to suit the the user’s preferences.

“With this fund raise, our singular focus is to achieve scale, from the current 20 room nights a day to over 100 room nights, within 12 months,” Shiju Radhakrishnan, iTraveller’s founder and CEO, tells Tech in Asia. A room night can be defined as the total number of hotel rooms booked, multiplied by the number of nights.

“We have resolved to become the largest tech-enabled platform for holidays in the country with a target of US$1 billion transactions in the next five years,” he added.

The funds from this round will be spent on technology and marketing with a focus on mobile devices and enhanced user engagement.

Incubated at the Kochi Startup Village in 2011, iTraveller’s 15 member team is set to grow in the coming few months. The website has 200,000 user-created trips for more than 20 travel destinations. They have also tied up with 60 travel agencies that handle operations at the various destinations

iTraveller competes with online travel agencies that offer vacation packages where the likes of MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, and Yatra dominate India’s online travel space with a hold on 85 percent of the market share.

See: Aoliday sells trips to China’s adventurous global tourists, gets $1.5M seed funding