RailYatri.in, a startup that provides real time information regarding trains in India through its mobile app, has today announced a fresh funding round. While the amount raised by the company has not been disclosed, it has said that all of its existing investors — including Nandan Nilekani, Helion Ventures, Omidyar Partners and Blume Ventures –have participated in this round.
This round comes on the back of a previous round which the company raised in March, this year. With this fresh funding, RailYatri will be now looking to aggressively push growth and offer new services to enrich the ij-train experience of travelers.
Commenting on this development, Manish Rathi, CEO & Co-founder RailYatri.in, said,
We have witnessed an unprecedented organic growth over the last several months and are quickly moving in the direction of becoming the largest travel app in the country. In many ways, such an enthusiastic participation from our investors revalidates our strong value proposition to the largest travel segment in India. Over the next 12 months we plan to establish RailYatri.in as a household name across the country.
Nandan Nilekani, former Chairman of UIDAI, who participated in this round, said,
My ongoing interactions with the extended RailYatri team has made me all the more excited about the impact which RailYatri can bring in using smart combination of mobile, data, payments and analytics to the common man in India. Their prediction algorithms are already delivering time & money savings for the travelers.
RailYatri was founded in 2011 by Manish Rathi, Kapil Raizada and Sachin Saxena. It is a comprehensive hub of train travel information that works to give its users insightful information to help them plan and take their travel decisions in a better way. It offers services such as Railway Alert System, Live Train Station, Arrival / Departure, PNR Status, Rail Wisdom, Time Table, Trains between Stations, Platform Locator, and Seat Availability. Recently, it also introduced meal booking on train.
The platform uses deep-analytics technology to make intelligent predictions that help travelers make smart decisions for their upcoming travel. The app uses a traveler’s mobile GPS to predict a train’s delay, in addition to platform number, coach position, on-time history of a train and wait list confirmations.
The company has recently made a foray into becoming a train-travel oriented marketplace. It is now letting travelers book essential services such as high-quality on-board meals, bus tickets, budget rooms, etc.
Siddharth Nautiyal, investment partner at Omidyar Network, said,
We’re inspired by RailYatri’s innovative technology-led solution catering to a massive population of long distance rail passengers through a content, commerce and community strategy. We believe the company is well poised to generate impact at scale while achieving financial success.
