HYDERABAD: Travel start-upshave turned out to be a hit across the country, and Hyderabad, for its part, has churned out a handful of such niche firms. The city is home to at least 10 travel-based start-ups that have come up in the last one year alone.
Rahul Verma, cofounder of Tripmatic, decided to create an app to preserve travel memories while he was holidaying in south east Asia last year. The app uses information such as geo-location, dates, time and photos to help other travellers get a better picture of places they want to head to. "I feel travel agents often do not present correct data. Pictures shown are many a times artificially beautified. So, I thought of a simple way of showing a travel destination through the eyes of a traveller," said Verma. The app currently has 700 users, four months into its launch. Other apps such as Travelkhushi provide travel accessories including slippers, travel bags and customised travel kits (such as shaving kits) to people. "In India, travel accessories are largely undiscovered and have a lot of potential. Our model is to deliver easily-packed travel requirements in limited quantities at touch points during the journey," said founder Vishal Chakravarthy, a 27-year-old MBA graduate.
Experts say travel-based start-ups have caught on fast in the city. "There are an increasing number of start-ups and the good thing is they do not follow the herd mentality. A few of them are doing very well, aimed at addressing some identified problems," said Ramesh Loganathan, start-up mentor at T Hub and member, incubator board, IIT-Hyderabad.
Omitra, an app-based city start-up, has been connecting people with similar interests during long train journeys. The app has around 45,000 users and will add a food aggregating service to allow users to choose food delivery options from various hotels across 300 cities during their journey. "With the food aggregating service and train updates on the app, we have started getting advertising revenue," said Vikas Jagetiya, 35, the app's founder.
Groupila, another startup, allows users to choose between five verticals of interests. Started two months ago, users can choose how to spend their time from a range of events, activities, getaways, choices of food and drink, as well as interesting places to be explored in the city. The founders, Satish Sharma and Praneeth Chinta, discovered that the market for the app was big. "We realised that the market starts from 15-year-olds to 50-yearolds and with increasing incomes, people want to have more and more experiences," said Sharma.
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