Budget hospitality chain V Resorts lines up SaaS push with new funding round

Bliss Inns Pvt. Ltd., the Delhi based company that runs an asset-light hospitality business under the brand name V Resorts, is using its proprietary technology to develop a SaaS (software-as-a-service) product for its partners, a company executive told TechCircle. A sizable portion of the $10 million Series A funding round that the company has just raised will be used to develop the SaaS product.

On Monday, the company said in a statement that a bunch of HNIs (high net worth individuals) had led the Series A round. The investors included Vikram Puri, director of Archer Hospitality and, Mohit Chuganee, owner of Mass Private Trust. The company’s existing investors Bedrock Ventures and RB Capital participated in the round.

"We are in the process of developing and customizing technology for all aspects of the resort management business in the form of an ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution based on mobile especially for owners and resort managers. The idea behind developing this technology is to help our customers get an end-to-end solution without any involvement of third parties. Even experiences can be managed through our unique system," Aditi Balbir, founder and CEO said.

The startup claims to have reduced costs and achieved break even at low occupancy levels using its in-house technology. "Our full-stack PaaS solution will include the entire business lifecycle of resort management. Right from booking engine, channel manager, Corporate & Travel Agent (TA) manager (also called GDS systems), payment options, reservations and front office software, etc. – all on auto sync mode, sales tracking, ops tracking software for on ground force, central Inventory tracking - dashboard," she added.   

It also plans to deploy the capital to expand its footprint in India and enter new markets across South Asia and the Middle East, with a target of reaching more than 1000 properties and 15,000 rooms in the next three years.

“Within India, a significant part of the growth will be focused on entrenching markets such as Andhra Pradesh where the company is already in talks with the Andhra Pradesh Government to promote state-wide tourism,” the statement said.

V Resorts was founded by Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad alumnus Balbir in 2014. She has also been a venture capitalist and was earlier with Bedrock Ventures, Baring Private Equity Partners and McKinsey & Company. The company currently manages over 150 properties across 22 states in the country. It aggregates existing properties and manages their operations on a revenue-share basis.

“We shall also broaden our association with local women communities, standing true to our commitment on creating women entrepreneurs at every level,” Balbir said.

In 2018, the company also launched its in-house local store - Pitara, where it worked with native women groups to package and sell their local products.

The company also claims its asset-light model and operating efficiencies help its properties break even at 20% occupancy within the first six to nine months, and achieve a 50% profit margin within the first three years itself.

V Resorts was incubated by Bedrock in 2010, which invested Rs 3 crore in it. Later, the company also raised funds from Ravi Dhariwal, former chief executive of Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd, and Delhi-based Lakshmi Publications. In 2013, it raised Rs 10 crore from early-stage VC investor Seedfund and Rs 13 crore from RB International in 2016.