Indian Railway query platform RailYatri is in talks to secure a funding of $10 million from its existing investor Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm.
This third round of funding will also see participation from its other existing investors including Blume Ventures, Helion Venture, Nandan Nilekani according to the source ET.
“While the talks are on with our existing investors, the quantum of capital we will raise will depend on the scale we wish to achieve over the next 12-18 months,” Manish Rathi, co-founder of RailYatri told the source.
The fresh capital will be used to expand the firm’s offerings to capture the long-distance market through penetration in geographical spread of buses, along with the introduction of long-distance taxis. RailYatri will also be aiming to grow its 13 million user base by four folds to touch the 50 mark by 2020-21.
RailYatri expects to bag around $4-5 million from Omidyar alone. It has so far raised $6 million since it was founded back in 2013 by Kapil Raizada, Sachin Saxena and Manish Rathi. The travel app provides comprehensive information on queries related to trains, PNR Status, passenger amenities at stations, platforms, mobile alerts for PNR Statuses updates to name a few of its services.
The startup had raised its first round of funding in 2014, led by Blume Ventures and a US Based investor. Later, by June 2015, it secured its Series A funding led by Blume Ventures, Omidyar Network, Helion Venture Partners and Ujama.
RailYatri uses analytic technology to make predictions that help travelers to get train’s running status, delay, and even provide the platform number on which a train will arrive.
The Mumbai-based startup has also recently acqui-hired food tech platform YatraChef to boost its food-on-rail service, counts train tickets, bus tickets and food as its key revenue churning verticals accounting for almost 90% of the company’s revenue share.
With inputs from Economic Times