The founder and promoter of Cox and Kings, Urrshila Kerkar, has bought a 51% stake in the Gurgaon – based travel startup, We Are Holidays, by investing Rs. 50 crores in the startup. Urrshila Kerkar will lead the Series B round of funding among other high – profile investors like Vijay Shekhar, Founder of Paytm; Anupam Mittal, Founder of Shaadi.com; Sachin Bhatia, Founder of MakeMyTrip and Rajesh Sawhney, former CEO of Reliance Entertainment, along with Blume Ventures and Matrix Partners. Prior to this investment in We Are Holidays, Cox and Kings had bought a 10% stake in Ezeego.com. Read more on Investments
“It would be a strategic partnership with a listed company like Cox & Kings since its promoter and founder has now invested in Series B in our company. We exist in a different space in the social media aspect of travel, where Cox & Kings does not have presence. Urrshila has bought out the stakes from some of our angel investors and would be the largest shareholder in our start – up”, said Deepak Wadhwa, CEO and Founder of We Are Holidays.
The balance stake in WAH will be held by its founders. WAH is a website and mobile platform where users can book hotels at famous holiday destinations around the world at a discount. Prior to this round of funding, WAH had secured US $2.5 million in Series A round of funding, funded by the same group of investors. The funds secured through Series B round of funding, will be used to develop the social aspect of travel and re – launch its app (BIA) on the app store and iOS. The app will provide information to travellers by means of vouchers on shops.
The travel industry in India is doing reasonably well. Quite a few travel startups in India had either got funded or merged in the past few months. For example: the travel startup TravelTriangle.com had secured US $10 million in Series B round of funding led by SAIF partners and BESSEMER venture partners during February, this year (2017). During November last year (2016), the travel startups, TravelYaari.com and Goibibo.com merged with the travel firm, MakeMyTrip.com. The stress related to work is increasing in recent years. Therefore, it is no surprise that the businesses of travel startups in India are booming as more and more people want to take a break from work. The fact that people are able to book hotels in famous travel destinations around the world, at a discount, through the mobile apps or websites of these startups is also helping their business. The Government of India by means of the Tourism Board should conserve tourist and heritage sites in India and fund and promote travel startups like We Are Holidays (WAH). Read more on Startup News
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