Angels infuse $1.35 mn in hotel aggregator Treebo

Bengaluru-based Ruptub Solutions, which runs budget hotel aggregator Treebo, has raised $1.35 million (about Rs 10 crore) from a group of angel investors, weeks after it received $6 million from returning investors.

Deepak Parayanken, managing director of Mozambique Holdings, led the latest round, a statement said. 

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Jaydeep Barman and Shantanu Deshpande, CEO of Paytm, Rebel Foods and Bombay Shaving Company, respectively, participated in the round, it said. They were joined by Siddharth Velakacharla, partner at Indus Capital Partners; and Gautam Gurnani, vice president of investments at Dubai Holding, along with senior executives from McKinsey, Amazon and Microsoft.

The company has raised $64.5 million across multiple rounds so far, as per data on VCCEdge. This year, the firm raised $1.37 million in a Series D funding round in July from HNIs and angel investors, and $457,748 from media conglomerate BCCL in January.

“The belief demonstrated by these investors -- all seasoned business professionals themselves -- in Treebo despite the current challenging times is precious for us. They are taking a bet on the long term prospects and the strong fundamentals of the business, which is hugely encouraging,” Sidharth Gupta, co-founder of Treebo, said.

Founded in 2015 by Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary and Kadam Jeet Jain, the budget hotel chain manages over 10,000 rooms across more than 100 cities. In August last year, Treebo launched a SaaS business, Hotel Superhero, to onboard mid- and small-scale hotels.

Lead investor in the latest round, Mozambique Holdings, is a diversified conglomerate headquartered in Maputo, with 1,400 employees and a $100 million turnover. The Parayanken family office owns five hotels in the US, operating under brands such as Holiday Inn and Hyatt. The group also has business interests across power, utilities, defence, auto and pharma sectors in Mozambique.

“As investors in the hospitality and real estate space ourselves, we understand the role that technology and a good brand play in the success of any hospitality business. Treebo has developed strong capabilities in both these areas," Parayanken said.

"Their hotel management software, Hotel Superhero, is something that hotels of all sizes and shapes across the world can benefit from. Their unique playbook of providing quality assurance to customers and better monetisation to hotel owners in the budget segment is also something that has global potential,” he added.

Treebo competes with companies such as OYO, FabHotels, MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip and Yatra.