Travel portal Holidify recasts business; co-founder quits

Destination discovery portal Holidify is restructuring its operations and one of its co-founders has quit, in the latest instance that highlights growing pains at Indian startups as investors turn cautious and funding slows.

Co-founder Rohit Shroff has left the Delhi-based startup to join Girnar Software Pvt Ltd, the parent of auto portal CarDekho.com, as associate director, according to his LinkedIn profile. Shroff was also Holidify's CEO, according to the profile.

Kovid Kapoor, the other co-founder, confirmed the restructuring but refused to divulge any details.

According to a person familiar with the matter, who didn't wish to be named, a number of employees have left the startup to take up jobs elsewhere.

The number of employees who have left and those who remain with the startup couldn't be immediately ascertained.

IIT Bombay alumni Shroff and Kapoor started Holidify Travels Pvt Ltd, which runs the portal, in 2014. Before starting Holidify, Shroff worked with Indus Insights while Kapoor was employed at Opera Solutions.

In October last year, the company received $100,000 (Rs 65 lakh then) in funding from the promoter family of Aarti Group, Findyogi founder Naman Sarawagi and angel investor Himanshu Sarawagi.

Holidify is not the only startup which is restructuring its business at a time when investors are increasingly focusing on profitability rather than growth.

Last week, Delhi-based truck aggregator TruckMandi saw co-founder Anurag Jain quitting, even as the startup tries to rejig its business model. It had raised under $2 million (Rs 13.3 crore) in pre-Series A funding from JustEat India founder Ritesh Dwivedy and other investors in 2015.

In March, Bangalore-based online meal service provider iTiffin.in, which is backed by cricketer Robin Uthappa, stopped taking orders and advised employees to look for jobs.

The travel planning segment in India is dominated by online travel agencies such as MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Goibibo and Yatra, but a string of new-generation travel startups have emerged in recent years with differentiated offerings. Some of these startups have also received funding.

In October last year, travel itinerary portal Tripoto raised an undisclosed amount in funding from investors led by 500 Startups, IDG Ventures and advantEdge. Prior to that, Noida-based Holiday Triangle Travel Pvt Ltd, which runs an online marketplace to find travel agents for direct booking of customised holiday packages, raised $8 million (Rs 50 crore) in a funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.