Travel tech player Trip Tap Toe eyes $10-m funding

Travel tech player Trip Tap Toe is planning to raise $10 million by offloading a 20 per cent stake to VC funds by next fiscal.

The seven-year-old company, which has migrated from offline to online travel packages, had raised an undisclosed amount last year by selling a 26 per cent stake to former ONGC Chairman RS Sharma.

Manuraj Singh Johar, founder of Trip Tap Toe, said: “We raised seed funding last year and are now planning to raise a pre-series A round from VCs. The last time we raised money, our valuation was at ₹28 crore and now we are hoping to take it up to ₹70 crore for the next round of funding, in which we would be selling an additional 20 per cent stake in the company.”

Trip Tap Toe is rather confident of convincing investors, who are increasingly cautious about loss-making travel portals.

“Investors are scared when it comes to travel portals since most are loss-making. But there are a few who are making money. In our case we gradually moved out of an offline model to developing a dedicated travel app,” said Johar. The company claims it has managed to break even since it started as an offline player and then became a travel tech company. The online travel segment includes big players such as MakeMyTrip and Yatra.

Most travel portals continue to have an offline presence, since going completely online is not feasible when it comes to customising packages.

“Unlike ticketing and hotels, packages cannot go completely online as there are multiple stages involved in customisation. Even after going online, our customised packages are dealt with through offline support,” Johar added.

Meanwhile, new online travel companies continue to get launched and funded. Recently, Goomo raised $50 million from Mauritius-based PE firm Emerging India.

With a turnover of ₹6.25 crore, Trip Tap Toe now wants to raise money to develop artificial intelligence capabilities and machine technologies. “Our target is to double our turnover this year as we have been growing at 76 per cent every year,” said Johar.

However, raising money is not going to be easy for online travel companies, say industry observers. Said Mukul Singhal, former Principal at Saif Partners: “Raising new money in the online travel space has got tough after the merger of MakeMyTrip and GoIbibo, as investors are closely watching the consolidation exercise. It is possible to have only one-two players in online travel unless there are strong differentiated offerings.”

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