TripHobo (which was earlier called JoGuru), is a Pune-based online travel/itinerary planning portal that has recently raised Series A funding from Kalaari Capital (the same folks who have also funded Pune-based tablet maker Swipe Telecom). Trak.in reports:
TripHobo, a Pune based online travel planning portal announced their series A funding from Kalaari Capital. TripHobo has not disclosed the amount of funding. However, we have a confirmation that funding is between USD 1 million to 3.5 Million.
They had previously raised their seed funding from a Pune based private investor in 2012.
We take this opportunity to give PuneTech readers an overview of TripHobo’s offerings and it’s current state:
What exactly does TripHobo help its users do?
The main feature of TripHobo is personalized itinerary planner. A traveler can simply choose the destination and date they wish to travel and TripHobo presents to them with the attractions in that city.
Travelers can then choose the attractions and prepare the entire travel itinerary in minutes. If a traveler is not sure of the attractions, they can also search through thousands of itineraries created by other travelers and modify them as per their requirement.
Also:
On TripHobo, one can discover itineraries created by other users and use them for his/her planning. Users can also create their own itineraries from scratch and share it. The startup has developed a ‘Theory of Constraints’-based algorithm that claims to optimise the trip route chosen by a user, depending on the distances and open & closing time of attractions.
According to the company, the ‘Itinerary Planner’ feature on its site displays the tentative time a user can reach a particular attraction. This is aimed at helping them to accommodate their breakfast, lunch and dinner plans.
“Travellers often struggle to get critical information like opening times, ticket prices, nearest public transport and eateries. We at TripHobo have tried to address all these issues,” claimed Kumar.
According to CTO Saket, TripHobo has listed more than 25,000 itineraries from close to 200 cities across the globe on its site. It is now planning to add more cities and take the total city count to 2,000 in the coming years.
“At present, about 40 per cent of our users come from the US, followed by 35 per cent from Europe and Latin America combined, and 20 per cent from Southeast Asia. In the last six-eight months, we saw close to one million users checking out the platform. The site has around 1.3 lakh monthly unique visitors,” said Saket.
According to VC Circle, they are doing quite well as far as traction is concerned:
According to CTO Saket, TripHobo has listed more than 25,000 itineraries from close to 200 cities across the globe on its site. It is now planning to add more cities and take the total city count to 2,000 in the coming years.
“At present, about 40 per cent of our users come from the US, followed by 35 per cent from Europe and Latin America combined, and 20 per cent from Southeast Asia. In the last six-eight months, we saw close to one million users checking out the platform. The site has around 1.3 lakh monthly unique visitors,” said Saket.
What are their next steps?
they are now aggressively looking at developing a mobile app that will help mobile users to create travel itineraries on mobile devices.
Additionally, TripHobo also plans to develop API’s on their platform so large OTA and travel sites can seamlessly integrate TripHobo’s itineraries into their existing flow. Currently non of the large OTA’s provide this service.
About the Founders
Praveen Kumar – Founder, CEO: Praveen has flair to go on and on endlessly about things he is passionate about, irrespective of who’s listening. He says he is national integration personified. Rajasthani by descent, Hyderabadi by birth, he studied in Lucknow, roots for Royal Challengers Bangalore- IPL, has traveled almost whole of India. His friends say he is over enthusiastic, full of life and a happy go lucky chap. He brings to TripHobo (JoGuru) his 7 years of rich experience in setting up an ecommerce portals for his past organizations. Extremely zealous about traveling and exploring new places, he has occasional bouts of backpacking urge and takes off without notice, his 18 day bike trip to Leh, Himalayas being a case in point. He never misses out an opportunity to tell his travelouges. Praveen is the CEO of TripHobo (JoGuru) and has a Management Degree from IIM Lucknow. He loves adventure sports, fast cars, and dreams of owning a private island in Maldives.
Saket Newaskar – Founder, CTO: Ever since Saket developed some algorithms at Toshiba, and got a patent, he thinks he is a clone of Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, much to the annoyance of everyone around him. He has an uncanny ability to argue about anything under the sun with or without making any sense. He wanted to be a Marathi film star but ended up with a Master’s degree in Management from MDI, Gurgaon. He has over 7 years of experience in Product Development, Product Management and Business Development across the Globe. Passionate about anything related to technology or travel, he has been to more than 20 countries till date and dreams of covering the UN. He loves life, singing, watching movies and is famous for his PJs among friends . Saket is the social media wizard at TripHobo (JoGuru) and manages product development and roadmap.
Karthik Ramachandra – Founder: Karthik is an avid traveler (traveling close to 6 hours daily to and from work) and loves adventure sports, reading and above all – Sleeping. When awake, he constantly dreams of attending every single Grand Prix in Formula 1 someday. He speaks with immense confidence about things he has no clue about and mostly manages to get away with it. He lists Sarcasm as his majors, but has a Master’s degree in Marketing Management from IIM Indore. He is the quintessential salesman. Once Karthik starts talking, the listener almost invariably ends up saying OK. He brings to TripHobo (JoGuru) over 4 years of experience in Business Development for new products and new markets. He is a gadget freak and an Apple fan boy and it is recommended to refrain from asking him about it unless you have a couple of hours to spare.
For more information, read:
- Trip planner TripHobo raises Series A funding from Kalaari Capital – from VC Circle
- TripHobo (Formerly JoGuru) Raises Series A Funding From Kalaari Capital – from Trak.in
- About Us – TripHobo Trip Planner – from TripHobo’s website