70,000 itineraries for travelers and $3M in fresh funding: the TripHobo growth story

Indian travel planner TripHobo has raised series B funding of US$3 million from Mayfield and Kalaari Capital. The three-year-old portal that lets travelers share itineraries and plan their tours better had raised more than US$1 million from Kalaari last year to add more itineraries to its data pool and enhance its tech tools.

The startup currently has more than 70,000 itineraries, which travelers can customize according to their requirements. It also has curated content on almost 400 tourist hotspots across the globe. This is a big leap from June 2014 when Tech in Asia spoke to the TripHobo team last. Then, it had about 25,500 itineraries and information on 200 holiday destinations.

Co-founder of TripHobo Karthik Ramachandra took us through one of their trump cards: a self-learning algorithm called “Trip Optimizer.” It measures parameters like distance from hotel, opening and closing times of places to visit, and so on, to help create a good itinerary. This is especially useful for travelers planning a short trip.

See: IDG Ventures backs Indian travel storyteller Tripoto

TripHobo founders Praveen Kumar, Karthik Ramachandra, and Saket Newaskar

Travel buffs Praveen Kumar, Karthik Ramachandra, and Saket Newaskar started TripHobo in 2012 to solve the lack of credible travel planning resources, a problem they themselves faced frequently.

“The ambition for TripHobo is to be the central point of the trip planning process by allowing users to plan, optimize, and eventually book customized trips by leveraging technology,” says Nikhil Khattau, managing partner with MF Advisors.

According to Sumit Jain, VC with Kalaari Capital, “customization is going to be the game changer for the travel industry in the coming years. Travelers are no longer satisfied with ‘one size fits all’ holidays and are demanding unique experiences.” Kalaari is betting on TripHobo to capitalize on this trend.

Tech in Asia first wrote about TripHobo in September, 2013. However, at the time, the startup went by the name JoGuru. The co-founders decided to rebrand the company as TripHobo to reflect their global ambition.