Tushky seeks to be an online marketplace for travel and local fun activities

Mumbai-based Tushky Events & Entertainment Pvt. Ltd which runs Tushky, an online marketplace for listing, exploring and booking experiences (like activities, workshops, things to do, experiential trips, tours or unique weekend getaways), has disclosed it has raised Rs 35 lakh ($63,000) as angel investment from undisclosed investors, its founder told Techcircle.in.

Though the funding happened last year, it was kept under wraps till now.

The online portal, which went live in August last year, has been using the funds raised to do MVP (Minimum Viable Product), which included developing a robust web app and getting first 100 customers (the company claims to have more than 300 customers now).

Speaking to Techcircle.in, Talvinder Singh, founder and CEO of Tusjky said, "We are investing our time in learning this nascent and badly fragmented sector." Tushky essentially connects travellers with local, lesser known or unknown guides, tour operators and experience providers to discover, book and offer local experience. So, one can book sky diving experience (in India or abroad) as well as a salsa dance class in your city. Listing comes for free, but when there is any transaction, there is a fee attached to it.

While some of the offerings on Tushky like sky diving, learning Parkour, sword fighting, candle making and pottery makes it different, it also offers bookings for various other travel activities and events where it would compete with much larger firms such as established OTAs and deal sites.

"Our USP lies in the ability to crowd-source and web-source hidden deals, with a big emphasis on peer-to-peer or travel web 2.0,"  Singh said.

The startup was founded by IIT-Bombay alumnus Talvinder Singh, who has previously worked with IIT-ian's Pace Education Pvt Ltd, a provider of training services for competitive exam preparation as CTO besides Digital Pace Education Pvt Ltd, a company that creates next-gen multimedia educational content for K12  Science and Maths and IITJEEhelpline, a social initiative to help IITJEE aspirants.

It is now looking at raising its next round of funding.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)