Top 10 Travel Startups

Over the last seven years, the travel industry has experienced a significant increase. As Indians' disposable incomes increase, more people are packing their bags and traveling to exotic locations.
Traditionally, Indians traveled with their families. This pattern has shifted dramatically, with young lone professionals spending an increasing number of trips to off-the-beaten-path destinations each year.
And, as opposed to word-of-mouth suggestions, these young people are incredibly tech-savvy and mainly rely on applications and the internet to arrange their trips.

As travel habits become more sophisticated, an increasing number of devoted entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are developing solutions to assist them get into this growing segment of the market.
Here is a list of the top ten Indian travel-related start-ups that are changing the way Indians travel:

#10 Cleartrip

There will almost never be somebody who does not wish to travel. Traveling is exhilarating and introduces you to a new world. Traveling has grown more convenient and peaceful as a result of the different websites for ticket and accommodation bookings. However, the situation was not the same 15 years ago. There were no online booking portals, so consumers had to rely on inconvenient old ways of transportation. At the same time, not everyone had access to the internet. In the mid-2000s, Facebook was all the rage, and no one, at least in India, was considering making train and hotel reservations over the Internet. However, Hrush Bhatt had the brilliant idea of creating an internet service where people could quickly book hotels, trains, and even flights. Bhatt is an Indian entrepreneur who used to travel extensively over India with his maternal relatives. He enjoyed traveling and had visited the United States on several occasions. Bhatt attended Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he majored in economics and history. He wrote for the college newspaper while studying and even received an Apple Macintosh for his efforts, on which he began learning to design.
Bhatt graduated in 1998 and returned to India, where he began working as the lead designer at Plexus Technologies. He worked here for a year and learned a lot about eCommerce. During his time at Plexus Technologies, he served as the principal consultant on the Indiatimes.com launch team. Following his departure from Plexus Technologies, Bhatt founded Paper Plane, a consulting firm and digital consultancy. But, like any other company, this one did not fare well. Bhatt was depressed and frustrated after the failure of Paper Plane. However, his unhappiness inspired him to establish Cleartrip, India's largest travel booking service. Bhatt and his co-founders, Stuart Crighton and Mathew Spacie, began developing a website for their new venture, a travel booking business. Stuart Crighton has previous experience in the hospitality industry as the former COO of Cox & Kings.

It only took the co-founders nine months to create a good website and seek investors to invest in their business. Cleartrip was officially introduced in 2006. Because it was a novel concept for Indian investors, the corporation had to work hard to persuade them. Despite the novelty of the company concept, Cleartrip quickly gained traction and popularity after its launch. Interestingly, the company did not provide any discounts to its consumers, but its high-quality service drew the majority of them. The company primarily targeted frequent travelers rather than those who only traveled once a year.
Cleartrip launched Express Way, a one-click approach, in 2011 to assist users in securely storing their travel and payment credentials on the site. In 2012, the company released its first mobile app for iOS and Android, offering users an intuitive design and seamless booking processes. The organization handled reservations for flights, railways, and hotels throughout India. Cleartrip offered a new tool to its consumers in 2016, PriceLock, which, as the name suggests, allows users to lock in travel prices. In the same year, it also launched Cleartrip Local, another tool that allows users to discover activities in their immediate surroundings.

In 2017, the firm added additional features such as Cleartrip Stories and Instant Search, as well as the ability to pay with Apple Pay. Cleartrip Stories enabled users to share their Cleartrip experiences with friends and family through their Cleartrip profile. Instant Look made it easier for users to search for and book reservations. In the same year, Google Flights, its flight search application, teamed with Cleartrip.

Cleartrip expanded its services to the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) area in 2018, and in July of that year, the company purchased Flyin, a Saudi Arabia-based online travel aggregator.
Cleartrip increased its presence in Arabic-speaking nations by acquiring Flyin. As a result, the company launched the Arabic version of the website in 2018 to make the processes more convenient.
The company generates a maximum annual revenue of $110 million per year by selling over seven million aircraft tickets and 1.5 million hotel room stays. Cleartrip presently operates in 48 European nations and 18 Southeast Asian countries. Cleartrip Business is a separate service for corporate users offered by the company. It has also introduced a travel tool for agents called Agent Box.
Cleartrip has received numerous awards for its services both in India and overseas, including 'Most Innovative Companies in Asia,' 'India's Best Travel Website,' 'Product of the Year – Travel Category,' 'Best Mobile App for Travel,' and so on.

Tripoto (#9)

Many times, we are consumed by the desire to travel yet are unsure where to begin. Tripoto can save people's lives in this situation. This Delhi-based startup allows users to create itineraries for planned journeys that can then be shared with other travelers via the website. The goal of this startup is to make it easier for you to plan your vacation by using advice and inspiration from other travelers.
This reduces the worry and anxiety associated with travel planning, and who knows, you might just discover a new fantastic destination you'd never heard of before. TRIPOTO TRAVEL PRIVATE LIMITED is a Private Company that was established on 05-Aug-2013, 8 Year(s) 9 Month(s) 18 Day(s). TRIPOTO TRAVEL PRIVATE LIMITED is a Non-govt company that is registered with the Registrar of Companies in ROC-DELHI. According to the company's registration, it is involved in Business Activity Class / Subclass Code 63030, and the main activity of the said company TRIPOTO TRAVEL PRIVATE LIMITED is: Other supporting transport activities, It comes under Division SUPPORTING AND AUXILLIARY TRANSPORT ACTIVITIES; ACTIVITIES OF TRAVEL AGENCIES, and this comes under Section TRANSPORT, STORAG AND COMMUNICATIONS. Tripoto Travel Private Limited is a non-government organization that was founded on August 5, 2013. It is a private, unlisted corporation that is classified as a "company limited by shares."

The authorized capital of the company is Rs 10.0 lakhs, while the paid-up capital is Rs 1.68 lakhs (16.76 percent). Tripoto Travel Private Limited's most recent annual general meeting (AGM) was held on September 22, 2017. According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the company's financials were last updated on March 31, 2017. (MCA).

Tripoto Travel Private Limited has been in the transportation, storage, and communications sector for the past 9 years, and the company is still in existence. MICHAEL PARGAL LYNGDOH, KARAN MOHLA, and ANIRUDH GUPTA are the current board members and directors.

#8 SeekSherpa
The company is registered with the Registrar Office in Delhi (Delhi). D-58, Basement Kalkaji New Delhi South Delhi DL 110019 IN is Tripoto Travel Private Limited's registered address. SeekSherpa

We frequently call our pals in a city before traveling there. Because who better to show you around a new city than a local? However, it can be difficult when you arrive in a city and know no one.
SeekSherpa connects you with locals in the city you're visiting who are eager to show you around. These "sherpas" have been background checked and offer a variety of itineraries (called "micro tours") ranging from sightseeing to photography tours to cuisine walks, guaranteeing you discover a new place through the eyes of a local. Sukhmani Singh and Dhruv Raj Gupta, both 23, are buddies turned business partners in their previous lives. In 2011, both received their B.Com (Honours) degrees from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. As the academic year came to an end, Singh was hired by consulting firm AT Kearney as an analyst for its communications and technology areas, while Gupta auditioned for theater schools in New York. "I utterly failed," he admits. He eventually joined Google, where he learned the intricacies of data automation and mining while working in advertising.

The "Aha!" moment

Singh and Gupta are enthusiastic travelers. Whenever they traveled, whether together or separately, they made it a point to meet with locals in order to gain insights into their lives and comprehend the pulse of the place. Their "aha moment" occurred during a walk to Triund, near Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh. Gupta recalls how a stray dog joined them halfway and brought them to the top of a hill. "The trekking route wasn't straightforward, and if it hadn't been for the dog appearing then, we were thinking about returning before we got fully lost," he explains. This is when they noticed that tourists have a lot of questions that only locals can answer. "Locals are always willing to share information and advice that one cannot obtain in a travel book or online." "The dog incident got us both thinking about how we can bridge that gap—bring travelers and locals together to exchange information," Singh adds. "We had an idea, but we didn't know how to start a business," Singh adds.
"We did make mistakes (in thought and implementation) a few times, but we didn't consider them mistakes," Gupta adds. "We accepted them as lessons." In 2013, the next step was to construct a presentation and submit it to Nasscom, the information technology industry group, for its 10,000 Start-ups Initiative, which seeks innovative entrepreneurial ideas and connects them with investors. Singh and Gupta had an idea and understood the word "sherpa" would be included in the final name, but the finer elements needed to be worked out.

They envisioned city-based walking tours centered on themes such as food, nightlife, shopping, arts, and culture, led by a local. Their concept placed in the top 300 of over 4,000 entries, however it was not enough to advance to the direct pitch stage. "The second step was to submit the idea to (New Delhi-based) 91springboard, a platform that works with start-ups and connects them with investors and mentors," Gupta explains. They chatted with at least a dozen mentors at 91springboard to fine-tune the idea and understand how the travel business operates. "Fortunately, instead of having too many cooks distracting us, each mentor took care of a certain component," Singh explains. According to Gupta, VentureNursery, a group of investors, was intrigued enough by the notion to grant funding.
Singh and Gupta quit their jobs and began working full-time on the project in early 2014. According to Gupta, this is when the true roller coaster began. Once the funding was secured, the next step was to launch SeekSherpa and spread the word about it.

A Facebook page was the most cost-effective approach to test the waters, and they are leveraging tourist input to improve excursions. The ones with shopping and eating themes are the most popular.
They also vet the locals who work as guides or sherpas. Before being assigned tourists, "Sherpas" go through a verification process that includes reference checks and are briefed on tourism sector norms.
SeekSherpa presently has a presence in 50 Indian cities and receives three transactions every day. It is still in its early stages, therefore it has the most sherpas among the metros—around 1,000 for New Delhi and the National Capital Region, and more than 100 for Mumbai and Kolkata.

When tourists purchase a trip, they are provided information about it, such as the start and end points and whether they should bring extra cash for lunch and shopping.
Each few-hour tour can cost up to 3,000. Sherpas are paid by bank transfer within 12 hours at the end of a tour. SeekSherpa keeps 20% of the overall tour fee; the rest goes to the sherpa.
Each sherpa decides how many excursions he or she wants to do in a day. Some are only doing one tour, while others are doing three or four.
SeekSherpa is already planning to expand into "touristy" tier 2 cities and will go international next year.

#7 goMowgli

The concept of hop-on-hop-off buses is very popular in the Western world. This allows you to board a bus and get off at any location you want without being constrained by fixed schedules or complicated reservations.

The new travel company GoMowgli has now introduced this concept to India. The company operates buses in several states, and you can purchase a pass for a set number of days (e.g. 7 days or 21 days).
Once that's done, simply contact goMowgli and they'll direct you to the nearest bus stop. Once on the bus, simply get off at any location that appeals to you! You intended to take a vacation but were unable to obtain time off from work. You get the leave but not the plane tickets three months later. Finally, even if you get both and visit the location, it will not be memorable. It simply becomes another item on your to-do list. goMowgli, a travel startup claiming to be India's first flexible bus network for passengers, hopes to change that. By calling themselves a flexible bus network, they indicate that you can take the bus whenever you want from anywhere in their network and get off whenever you want. What is the procedure? Continue reading to discover out.
Sunil (one of the co-founders) had the idea for goMowgli while backpacking in New Zealand and discovered that his experience was very different from traveling in India. While it is simple to travel between two locations in India, it becomes more complex when it comes to last-mile connectivity. One can off the roadway, but what happens next? How can one get to an unusual destination that is considerably further away than the highway? Local transportation may or may not be available. You have no one to tell you anything about the site once you arrive.
goMowgli appears to solve all of these issues by establishing a network of hop-on-hop-off tour bus services for travelers. When a passenger purchases a pass, he has the freedom to travel anytime he wants within the validity term, which is typically 180 days. So you don't have to bother about transport tickets or leaves. Each bus has a guide who assists you in planning your travel and providing you with numerous options for lodging and nearby attractions. They may also assist you organize your schedule and provide you with not only information but also stories about the areas you are going.
Sunil Abhilash, Anil Alur, Karan Cariappa, and Megha, four friends, founded goMowgli. Sunil describes their first tour, saying, "None of us are from the tourism industry, so we started with no baggage." We knew what we wanted and began by taking modest measures toward it by offering day tours to Mysore's omnipresent yoga community. Although the yogis were apprehensive at first, three Romanian ladies turned up on the first free tour. We won them over with our amazing storytelling and enchanted them with our first tour around Mysore. We were overbooked on a 14-seater vehicle for the next free tour."

How does it work?

A goMowgli customer can travel across Karnataka just getting on and off a bus. He can purchase a 19-day pass (also known as a Masala Dose Permit) and then utilize that pass to travel throughout the state as needed to accomplish all 19 legs of the tour in 180 days. They can leave whenever and whenever they want simply by alerting the guide. To restart their journey, customers must phone customer service or send an email to the team to book a ticket on the day they wish to go, according to the timetable provided by the company. And they can go on their way. At the moment, their revenue is solely based on the passes they sell. And the majority of their marketing is done through social media and word of mouth. One of the most intriguing things they are doing is encouraging travel bloggers to go with them and capture their experiences in order to expand their network.

At the moment, their primary target audience consists of foreigners, single female tourists, young couples, and groups who rent a car and travel independently. Sunil describes their issues as follows: "We will always be compared to local transport, and people sometimes fail to comprehend why we charge Rs 1700 per day." The point is that transportation corporations just provide transportation. We are a flexible tour firm that provides some fantastic tours that local government buses cannot provide. In addition, we take you to unusual locations and pick you up and drop you off at the nearest spot where you stay. You are welcome to stay at your friend's home, and we will pick you up at a nearby location. With local transportation, you must make the long trek to the bus stop while carrying your heavy rucksack and yesterday's wet laundry." Sunil offers the following advise to those considering starting a business: "Remember life is a journey — a journey of a thousand miles where you must begin with the unshakable belief that you will arrive safely at the other end." Nobody can ever be certain of their destination, let alone their road. However, we always have an intuitive sense of which path we should pursue. Take it, follow it, and you'll figure out the rest as you go. If you look hard enough, you will find your way to your destination. And have fun on the gory journey. To summarize, do not wait for the perfect product. Simply get started, and you'll find your path."

 #6 Thrillophilia

Chitra Gurnani and Abhishek Daga launched Thrillophilia, a three-year-old travel firm. The company began with a love of travel and a belief in India as a good market for adventure excursions.
The company has been in the space for a few years and has recently expanded their range of activities and things to do. Thrillophilia is now a marketplace for tours, events, and things to do, and the website has been completely redesigned.

Thrillophilia began with a tiny round of angel funding from US investors in 2011 and has now grown to a team of 30 individuals. The gateway is primarily intended for visitors who want to experience local culture and activities. Sea kayaking trips in Goa, a palatial dinner with the royal family in Rajasthan, and so on. Many travel websites (Tushky, Poshvine, etc.) have shifted their focus to short activities and experiences. Thrillophilia has a four-person (and expanding) outdoor department whose job it is to travel and curate local activities. They travel, get experience, perform quality checks, and if approved, a vendor login is made for the vendor to upload his inventory, and web managers assist the vendor in getting his excursions online. At this point, Thrillophilia serves over 2200 consumers per month, with a good mix of single travelers, group reservations (sometimes as large as 150), and corporate bookings. The majority of them are day outings or weekend getaways, with overseas consumers accounting for about 12% of the total. "We don't claim to be addressing everything with this launch, but it's a major step towards the organization of the activity travel industry, and where we want to go is real-time on-the-spot booking on travel day," Abhishek finishes. The online travel curating business Thrillophilia has acquired $200,000 in funding from Hyderabad Angels, iLabs Venture Capital Fund, Navlok Ventures, and the Centre for Innovation, Incubation, and Entrepreneurship (IIM A). Thrillophilia, which was founded in April 2009, provides high-quality services in the facilitation of unusual and unique events. Thrillophilia.com was launched in August 2009, and the company has grown at a rate of 200 percent per year on average. Thrillophilia curates and plans adventure and activity vacations across the country for corporations, international travelers, and individuals.

Thrillophilia.com is in the forefront of developing a specialized activity segment in the travel market, with over 400 activity-based tours and 1,000 offbeat travel experiences on the platform. Over the last three years, the company has served over 50,000 travelers as well as 500+ corporate clients. The organization, headquartered in Bangalore, has a presence in 72 locations and agreements with 450 regional service providers. According to Pradeep Mittal, the deal's primary investor, the 'activity-travel' market is the third largest in the travel business after hotel and air travel. He went on to say that not only individuals but also organizations are interested in investigating outdoor learning experiences that combine enjoyment and leisure with business development.

Thrillophilia.com recently began focusing on giving short-duration experiences and activities to do in various destinations. This segment of the travel and tourism industry is rapidly growing in popularity. Abhishek Daga, co-founder of Thrillophilia.com, stated, "Our primary goal is to include 6,000 activities by December and serve one lakh experience hours per month by the end of 2014." Our key competitive advantage is our robust outdoor team, which conducts in-depth ground-level research on local merchants and travels across regions to select and validate experiences."

Many tourists are bored with the "standard" tourist attractions and seek out more adventurous activities. These could be as easy as a hike or as spectacular as scuba diving. For such unconventional travelers, Thrillophilia, a Bengaluru-based start-up, offers a plethora of curated adventure travel possibilities. The organization offers a variety of off-the-beaten-path packages that include activities such as white water rafting, snorkeling, bungee jumping, and others. The activity-based travel market in India is projected to be worth $2 billion, and Thrillophilia hopes to capitalize on it. Abhishek Daga founded the company, which began with a $200,000 venture capital investment from Hyderabad Angels, iLabs Venture Capital Fund, and Navlok Ventures, among others.

#5 AudioCompass

Have you ever arrived at a historical location and wished you had a knowledgeable guide to show you through it? AudioCompass strives to address that void by offering audio-guide solutions for use while visiting a given location. Hiring an informed guide might be difficult, and the quality and validity are dependent on your luck. AudioCompass offers audio tours that you may download and listen to while touring a location on your phone. The company began with a Rs 2.5 crore investment from Blume Ventures and Urshila Kerkar and is currently an official partner of the Ministry of Tourism. AudioCompass offers audio guides for destinations in India, Singapore, Oman, and Bhutan. AudioCompass is a mobile-based travel guide that guides visitors through stories of cultural and historical landmarks, museums, and monuments in India. The firm is now the official audio tour partner of the Government of India as well as several other UNESCO sites. Travelers no longer need to rely on tourist guides or books with the travel guide app. Tourists can listen to the audio-based travel guide at any time.

The Startup's Backstory

Founder and CEO Gautam Shewakramani

We spoke with Gautam Shewakramani, an MIT Sloan alumnus who left a successful corporate career to launch his own company in 2011. I started AudioCompass because I was experiencing personal difficulties. When I used to travel, I would use guidebooks, human guides, and wikipedia pages to learn more about my destination. Because my guide rushed to go to his next duty, I whizzed through sites and spent time in tourist shops, seeing 500 years of history compacted into 5 lines. When I should have been looking around, I read history from my smartphone screen. None of the existing options, I believed, permitted me to absorb the stories of the location in a simple and cost-effective manner. In 2011, the Archeological Survey of India chose AudioCompass as the official audio guide supplier for the Taj Mahal. Gautam got the opportunity to directly connect with Indian and foreign visitors who rented the startup's audio guide devices as the official audio guide supplier of the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort. Through talks with travelers, they noticed that the product was empowering visitors to these landmarks and decided to examine the industry further. The team discovered that 200+ million domestic trips are taken in India for tourist purposes each year [excluding family visits and pilgrimages], and the top 30 cities and monuments receive over 40 million visitors every year, only for domestic travel. They saw the breadth and scope of this market early on and determined that the best approach to reach it would be to distribute high-quality material via mobile apps, which is how AudioCompass was born.
Gautam Shewakramani, Founder & CEO, Pariket Doshi, CMO, and Chhavi Sachdev, Creative Head make up the AudioCompass team. Gautam has worked at Deloitte Consulting and Deutsche Asset Management as a strategy consultant. He graduated from the MIT Sloan School of Management with an MBA. At AudioCompass, Pariket is in charge of brand development, social media, user experience, product progression, community growth, and design. Chhavi previously worked as a radio journalist for radio stations in Europe and America, and commissions writers for the tours, edits scripts to bring the stories to life, and then collaborates with studios, voice over artists, and sound engineers to soundscape them, bringing the stories of India to your ear.

AudioCompass App Design Principles and Marketing Strategies

In early March 2014, the Android and iOS apps were released. It has 400+ attractions spread across 17 destinations, and the team is constantly adding new destinations and points of interest. "The initial traction and feedback have been incredible." People like how user-friendly the app is, and they like the content. We believe that word of mouth and social media will be the most effective channels for spreading the word about our app, so our efforts are focused on these channels," Gautam says. The design of any app is one of the most important factors in its adoption. We question Gautam about the app's design principles. " The fundamental design philosophy of our app is that our apps are developed with the "final mile of trip" in mind, which means that our app will be utilized while our customer is traveling. As a result, a big portion of our information is audio-based (so you may have your hands free and look around rather than staring at your device)," explains Gautam. The Indian Government's Ministry of Tourism has designated AudioCompass as the official audio tour of the global Incredible India campaign. As a result, the home page of www.incredibleindia.org includes a prominent link to AudioCompass. This is quite an accomplishment in and of itself. Guiddoo is a competitor in this space. The quality content and stories are a key differentiator for Audio Compass. The content and usage are intended for the "last mile" of travel, when people have checked out of their hotels and hostels and are exploring their destinations. The company does not intend to be a travel planner, guidebook, or anything else.

#4 Nearify

It can be daunting to arrive in a city and then figure out what to do. This is made more more difficult if you don't know anyone in the city. If this is the case, we recommend that you download Nearify right away. The Nearify app, which was launched in 2012, offers users with information about local events. Simply enter the name of your city to find meet-ups, workshops, music performances, and other events in your area. Nearify, situated in New Delhi, allows customers to discover a wide range of activities both near and distant. Users interested in learning about local or international music festivals, concerts, meetups, conferences, social events, sporting events, fundraisers, Broadway performances, movies, or anything else going on in their area. Nearify is available to assist them. Nearify aggregates all of the fascinating activities happening within a 50-kilometer radius of the user and lets them to choose what they want depending on their preferences. Their users no longer have to miss a single event that is taking place near them that they want to attend or participate in. Users can also use Nearify to find out what's going on in other parts of the world if they are traveling and want to plan their schedule. Nearify, situated in New Delhi, allows customers to discover a wide range of activities both near and distant. Users interested in learning about local or international music festivals, concerts, meetups, conferences, social events, sporting events, fundraisers, Broadway performances, movies, or anything else going on in their area. Nearify is available to assist them. Nearify aggregates all of the fascinating activities happening within a 50-kilometer radius of the user and lets them to choose what they want depending on their preferences. Their consumers no longer have to miss a single event that is taking place near them that they wish to attend or participate in. Users can also use Nearify to find out what's going on in other parts of the world if they are traveling and want to plan their schedule.

ExTravelMoney No. 2

Abroad exchange is a significant consideration, especially when arranging a large foreign vacation. It is not always straightforward to purchase forex due to the difficulty in locating the best exchange rates.
Furthermore, getting forex necessitates first locating a reputable money changer and then transporting all of your papers to their office only to discover that the rate they give is deplorable.
ExTravelMoney.com is an online marketplace in India for foreign exchange and remittance services. We help students and travelers travelling abroad make the best decision when it comes to booking foreign exchange services from RBI-authorized banks and money changers in their area.

Experience: In the year 2015...: ExTravelMoney was founded in 2015 with the purpose of making it easier to find the best rate foreign exchange services supplied by RBI-licensed banks and money changers. We also wanted to make it possible for consumers to book these services online from the convenience of their own home or office.

Our tiny endeavor has already grown into India's largest online marketplace for FX services. We now have a network of over 6500 partnered FX outlets across the length and width of India.

Priority: Ensuring Consumers Obtain The Best Exchange Rate & Service: We find satisfaction in ensuring customers get the best exchange rate for their forex needs. We want clients to say at the end of each forex transaction, "ExTravelMoney gave me the best rate and the process was easier than visiting my bank." That sounds wonderful to us. Our well-trained customer service representatives are instructed to do precisely that. They will advise you on the most cost-effective FX alternative and assist you with the necessary RBI documentation.
ExTravelMoney collaborates with forex dealers across the country to provide you with the best available exchange rate in the market on that particular day. Simply log in to the website, enter your forex requirements, and this Indian start-up will connect you to your nearest forex broker.

The wonderful aspect is that once you make a request, the rates are locked in and you may buy forex without worrying about costs rising.

#1 Oyo Rooms

In today's society, it's difficult to find someone who hasn't heard about OYO. This hotel organization has grown in size and impact.

OYO Hotels & Homes has experienced tremendous growth. OYO has come a long way since its inception in April 2013 to become the world's third-largest and fastest-growing chain of leased and franchised hotels, houses, and living spaces.

For those who are unfamiliar, OYO stands for "On Your Own." The platform has now become synonymous with low-cost accommodations. It is well-known for its low-cost lodging options. Since its inception, the company has continued to add feathers to its cap.

Its founder, Ritesh Agarwal, became the World's Youngest Self-Made Billionaire after Kylie Jenner in February 2020. Despite its success, the company faced numerous challenges.

We are all aware of the company's success, but very few people are aware of the entire tale behind OYO. How did it all begin? How does it broaden its offerings? What is the OYO business model?

We attempted to answer all of these queries in our blog.

The Origins of OYO

Ritesh Agarwal, a college dropout, had always wanted to establish his own business. In 2011, at the age of 17, he came up with the concept of Oravel Stays, which was then re-launched in 2013 as OYO Hotels & Homes.

There are some stories behind the creation of this platform, beginning with Ritesh Agarwal's childhood.

Ritesh Agarwal's Journey

Ritesh Agarwal was born in the Orissa town of Rayagada. He attended Rayagada's Sacred Heart School. Ritesh was always interested in computers, software, and coding since he was in elementary school.

• In 2009, Ritesh moved to Kota with the idea of enrolling in top IIT institutions. Later, he concluded Kota was not a good place to learn coding and abandoned his coding dream. He had a lot of free time, so he began writing a book called 'Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopaedia of Top 100 Engineering Colleges.' This was a big hit.

• At the age of 16, he was chosen as one of 240 students for the Asian Science Camp at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai.

• Ritesh Agarwal was one of 20 students under the age of 20 to be awarded the Thiel Fellowship. He was given $100,000 over two years, as well as advice and resources, to drop out of college and start a business.

Ritesh used to travel a lot and stayed in several hotels during his journeys. This made him aware of the terrible hospitality he received at several locations.

This inspired him to design a lodging system where customers could obtain the greatest rooms, meals, personnel, and other amenities for a reasonable price. In 2011, he founded Oravel Stays, an aggregator of breakfast and bed stays inspired by Airbnb's model.
Concerning the success of OYO

OYO did not achieve overnight success. It had to go through a series of events and tough stages as well. The COVID outbreak had an effect on the company's business as well.

OYO began in 2013 and has since acquired rooms in hotels across the country and transformed them into OYO. The company's only goal was to provide nice and inexpensive housing for its employees.

OYO Expansion

OYO has grown steadily since 2013. It began operations in India and has since expanded to operate in 800 locations in more than 80 nations.

In 2018, the company began international operations, beginning with Malaysia. It then expanded into the markets of the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, China, Singapore, and Indonesia, among others.

The company became a 100 percent leased and franchised hotel chain in 2018. It recorded 75 million global stayed room nights in 2018, nearly six times more than in 2017, and earned $211 million in revenue. It recorded 13 million, 6 million, and 4 million global stayed room nights in 2017, 2016, and 2015, respectively.

OYO achieved $951 million in revenue in 2019, representing a 740 million dollar increase over 2018.