DSIM startup of the week “Traveltriangle”:

How a trip to Leh-Ladakh led the foundation of TravelTriangle?

About TravelTriangle

The start-up story of Travel triangle is a classic story of two childhood friends who graduated from the IITs and turnedtowards corporate life and worked for MNCs like Adobe and Yahoo. These two friends were none other than Sankalp Agarwal (IIT Kharagpur) and Sanchit Garg (IIT Mumbai).

After completing their graduation from IIT, Sankalp started working for Adobe and Sanchit for Yahoo.Both of the first generation entrepreneurs quit their jobs in 2010, and they took nearly a year to define and refinetheir new entrepreneur concept clearly before launching TravelTriangle in 2011.
Where many start-ups struggles in their initial days to take-off their journey, TravelTriangle, an online travel services company started clocking revenues in just six to seven months after its inception. It collected INR 1.2 crore in just 7 months.

The Idea

The idea just came to their mind when they were ona trip to Leh and Agrawal found that two other friends booked similar packages as theirs but from different travel agents. One of them booked with the local travel agent in Leh and got the best deal, whereas his group shelled out much more for the same package.

Their ego was hurt, but they were not misguided by this. Rather they took it in positive way and the friends soon realized it also offered a business opportunity to set up a platform to book customized travel packages at competitive prices.

Then they decided to start a service platform where anyone can get the best deal without any problem with the help of technology and they started TravelTriangle.

The name TravelTriangle excited the founders as at the same time it is meaningful as it is connecting 3 different entities at a place: travelers, travel agents and an efficient marketplace.

Why we Choose TravelTriangle as Startup of the Week?

• The USP of TravelTriangle.com is that it enables customers to connect to multiple local travel agents, get quotations, and customize their trips according to their preferences and book through the site directly.

• Each request by a customer goes to at least three travel agents in the location selected by the client. The agents then compete among themselves to provide the best price and experience to the client.

• The start-up now has tie-ups with 400 travel agents in India and overseas, including Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Egypt. It provides packages for 35+ countries across the globe.

• However the company with only 15 employees has come upto this level in the industry. It succeeded in maintaining its presence over the social media platforms too. Its Facebook page has currently 32800+ fans and Twitter page has over 1300 followers. This is a great achievement for a company in this competitive sector.

Journey

The business journey started when they took a garage in Noida for their office and both of them started working hard to achieve their goal. So they moved forward with a business model that connects customers with travel agents who offers best deal for them.

Sankalp Agarwal said “There is no perfect time to start your own business. If you have a great idea, you should just take the dive”. Soon one more school friend of both, Prabhat Gupta who graduated from IIT Guwahati, joined the team as a core development member. This carried the company to the next stage.
“For us there couldn’t have been a better time to take control of our lives as we are young and have no hang-ups or pressures. We haven’t even started paying our insurance EMIs,” said Agrawal. The only hindrance was convincing our parents about their own belief. “It took some time as they thought we were too young to start up but soon understood our concern and supported us.”

Funding

Soon the company in July 2014 was able to grab its first round of funding. The firm collected $1.7 million in its Series A round of funding from SAIF Partners. It helped the company in nurturing its business and supported the business plans. Again on 29 April 2015, the company raised $8 million in Series B round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners with other investors including SAIF Partners.
However the services offered are free of cost for travelers but the company charges a small commission on every transaction from the travel agents. The current market scenario is what agents provide weighty commissions to B2B agents who bring them customers. So to minimize this commission value, the company is using structured process by connecting travelers directly to the tour providers.

Future Scenario

With the external funds coming in, the company is planning to cover a huge way in the market. The company personnel believe that the journey is going to be breath-taking. Seeing the growth,the company hasgreat market opportunity ahead and with the team who are not only dreamers, but doers, the company is geared up to achieve the goals. The company is making the personalized travel experience accessible to everyone through the expert and reliable agent network. With the enchanting platform, TravelTriangle is looking forward to be a giant in the tour and travel industry.