India’s HolidayIQ buys mobile dev agency to spruce up its product

Bangalore-based online travel community HolidayIQ has announced today that it has acqui-hired mobile development firm SourceN to beef up its mobile offerings for an undisclosed amount. The decade-old firm offers creative design and technical services for developing apps across platforms.

Besides developing apps, SourceN builds social ecommerce and crowdfunding communities. It has also developed SaaS and on-demand products. Some of their clients include startups like Cleartrip, TaxiForSure, and TravelMob, among others.

SourceN will leverage its experience of working with these startups to push the mobile consumption of HolidayIQ’s users.

“The SourceN team’s in-depth understanding of mobile consumer behavior in travel will further strengthen our product and also create a more robust engine enabling easier and seamless sharing of travel reviews, ratings, images, and video on mobile,” says Hari Nair, founder and CEO of HolidayIQ.

HolidayIQ gets 65 percent of user activity from mobile devices.

Founded in 2004, HolidayIQ says it now has reviews and resources for 50,000 Indian hotels and 2,000 nationwide destinations, and is used by 5 million Indian travelers every month for planning their trips.

The company is backed by Tiger Global and Accel Partners.

This is not its first deal of the sort. Earlier, HolidayIQ had merged with Singapore’s holiday booking service Wego but later demerged citing the need to “provide travellers with truthful information not affected by any requirements to sell specific travel products.”

HolidayIQ competes with Tripoto, which also lets users share travel experiences, post itineraries, and tell stories with pictures, maps, and reviews. Last month, it raised an undisclosed amount from IDG Ventures in a pre-series A round of funding.

According to Chetan Kapoor, research analyst with PhocusWright, Nearly two in five travel transactions are done online in India. “Expansion in the accommodation segment and leveraging on mobile point of sales will enable online travel firms to gain share of the online market through 2016,” he says.