Noida-based Holiday Triangle Travel Pvt Ltd, the company behind online marketplace for finding travel agents that also allows direct booking of customised holiday packages TravelTriangle.com, has raised $8 million (Rs 50 crore) in its second round of funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
The round also saw participation from its existing investor SAIF Partners. Last July it had secured Rs 10 crore ($1.7 million) from SAIF Partners.
The Times of India, which first reported the news , said the company will use the funds to push its product, expand the set of destinations it offers and increase its team size to 500 people.
The company was founded in 2010 by Agarwal, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur; Sanchit Garg, an IIT Bombay alumnus; and Prabhat Gupta, an alumnus of IIT Guwahati.
The platform enables customers to connect to multiple local travel agents, get quotations, customise their trips and book through the site directly. Users can also go through over reviews of agents written by other travellers. According to its site it has over 450 local travel agents spread over 35+ countries on its platform. It claims the firm has catered to over 1.5 lakh travellers in two years from 20+ countries and also has an office in the US.
Although the travel planning space is still dominated by online travel agents like MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Goibibo and Yatra, a string of new generation travel related startups have emerged with differentiated offerings. Some of the them also raised funding in the recent past.
Pune-based TripHobo raised $2 million in its Series B round of funding led by early-stage investor Mayfield and existing investor Kalaari Capital in March and in the same month Delhi-based Tripoto secured undisclosed amount IDG Ventures India and existing investor Outbox Ventures.
Earlier this month, MakeMyTrip acquired travel planning startup Mygola.com for an undisclosed amount.
