GoFro, India’s foremost online holiday marketplace, has raised funding led by H.I.S., along with participation from existing investor, MakeMyTrip as part of a $10 million plus Series B round.
H.I.S. is Japan’s leading travel company with 230 overseas branches in 141 cities across 66 countries, in addition to 233 retail outlets in Japan.
With this investment, GoFro will further strengthen its technology platform, supply and agent network and expand into international markets. GoFro is in advance talks with other investors who want to participate in this round.
Founded in 2015 by Amitabh Misra, GoFro is the flagship product of Bonavita Technologies Private Limited. It is a three-way online marketplace for holiday packages connecting travellers with suppliers and destination experts.
The company was started with the idea of empowering travellers by offering them an assortment of packages from all the leading online and offline travel companies including MakeMyTrip, Yatra, TUI and many more on a single platform.
“We are delighted to have H.I.S. as our investor. We are excited about this partnership and our journey forward as we launch the GoFro platform in Japan in the coming months. Support of H.I.S., Japan’s leading travel company, and MakeMyTrip, India’s largest online travel company, is a validation of the tremendous potential of GoFro’s marketplace platform. We have received great consumer traction in just a year of operations. We now look forward to H.I.S.’s global reach and experience helping us enhance our global supply network and provide great holiday packages at competitive prices to our customers,” Amitabh said in a statement.
GoFro has packages for more than 70 destinations across the globe. And with its expansion to Japan, it will become India’s first travel marketplace to expand its operations in the international market.
Speaking on its investment and partnership with GoFro, Akira Hirabayashi, Vice Chairman, H.I.S. said, “GoFro is poised for great success in the high growth holiday travel market in India. The team has created an amazing technology product and we believe it holds the potential to become the next travel-tech revolution. GoFro platform is globally scalable and we look forward to taking this revolution to Japanese market.”
Deep Kalra, founder of MakeMyTrip adds that they are very bullish on the possibilities in the holiday travel space.
“Through its superior technology, GoFro has the potential to bring hundreds of branded products under one umbrella to organise this fragmented market. We hold great confidence that GoFro will be able to capture and grow this underserved market through its differentiated product offering,” he says.