Bernardus Sumartok, co-founder and CEO of Tripvisto. Photo credit: Tech in Asia Indonesia.
Indonesian tour package booking site Tripvisto is folding up, with CEO Bernardus Sumartok confirming the shutdown. Sumartok explained that the company’s worsening unit economics meant it could no longer continue to operate, but he declined to share other details.
The Tripvisto site is still accessible but no longer takes bookings, and its social media channels haven’t been active since July 2017.
In 2015, right after Tripvisto raised US$ 1 million from Gobi Partners in a series A round, Sumartok spoke of a “ten-fold growth in monthly revenue over the past year.”
Tripvisto was also backed by East Ventures in its 2014 seed round.
Gobi declined to comment on the shutdown. East Ventures managing partner Willson Cuaca said his assessment of the situation was the same as Sumartok’s.
A former employee with direct knowledge of the situation told Tech in Asia that the startup began to have trouble hitting operational targets in May 2017. Since then, employees started leaving Tripvisto until there was no one left in the team.
According to the source, “Management tried to improve the situation by entering [into] partnerships with media and telcos to help promote tour packages, but that strategy also failed.”
There are many tour package players in Indonesia, such as TripTrus, MNC-backed Mr Aladin, and Ideabox graduate Gogonesia to name a few, but they seem to have a tough time reaching breakout success. Valadoo, for example, closed shop in 2015, even after an attempted merger with a similar company, Burufly. Others like GoArchipelago and Pikavia seem to have ceased operations as well.
Meanwhile, online travel agents like Traveloka, which started off by selling airplane and train tickets and hotel bookings, have branched out into offering experiences and packages. Traveloka has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from investors like Expedia and JD.
International tour package startups like Taiwan’s KKDay and Klook from Hong Kong are also pushing into Southeast Asia. Klook recently raised US$60 million, co-led by Goldman Sachs and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners.
This article was originally published in Indonesian, written by Aditya Hadi Pratama. Information was translated and edited for this version.
Editing by Elieen Ang and Eva Xiao
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