Singapore and Mumbai-based Goomo Holdings, which owns and operates travel tech start-up Goomo has raised $50 million (about Rs 332 crore) in funding from private equity firm Emerging India.
The round, which has seen Emerging India pick up a majority stake in the company, is one of the largest raised by a start-up operating in the online travel space, outside the big two players -Nasdaq-listed firm MakeMyTrip and Yatra -and is further evidence of increasing investor participation in the space.
Goomo was formed after Emerging India acquired traditional travel-focused company Orbit Corporate and Leisure Tours in November 2015, and then launched the online platform, Goomo.com, in March 2017.
“Goomo is being built ground up to be an omni-channel platform that will facilitate corporate and consumer travel bookings across online and offline channels,” Varun Gupta, Chief Executive, Goomo said in a statement.
According to him, the money will be disbursed in tranches, with the two year-old venture having drawn down about $25 million till date.
Emerging India, a Mauritius-based private equity fund, is primarily a growth-stage investor that invests across multiple asset classes, including, long-only equities, fixed income, credit strategies, private equity and fund of funds. In India, the investment fund has, till date, largely focused on capital markets.
“The travel industry in India offers immense opportunities for growth and consolidation. Over the past 12 months we have built a great team with a strong foundation. We are excited about the growth prospects of the business and expect the team to create a great India-focused travel distribution business in the next 2-3 years,” a fund spokesperson said.
Investors have flocked to the country’s online travel space, with both, MakeMyTrip and Yatra raising significant amounts of capital, while venture capital has also continued backing start-ups operating in the sector.
In May, MakeMyTrip said it had raised $330 million in the biggest round of funding in the Indian online travel space as the Gurgaon-headquartered company sets its sights on acquisitions and fending-off deep-pocketed entrants.
Separately, Yatra, in July 2016, had raised about $92.5 million after it entered into a reverse merger agreement with US-based, Nasdaq-listed special-purpose acquisition company Terrapin 3 Acquisition, paving the way for a back-door listing on the tech-dominated bourse.
In December, Gurgaon-based Le Travenues Technology, which runs online travel search engine Ixigo, had raised $15 million in a series-B funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Chinese conglomerate Fosun International.
Source: Economic Times
