Matrix Partners puts more money on travel

Investment firm Matrix Partners India has invested an undisclosed amount of funding in B2B (business-to-business) travel management startup Itilite, along with a clutch of unnamed angel investors.

Itilite, which was founded earlier this year, is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that offers end-to-end corporate travel management solutions. The company intends to use the funds raised to strengthen its technology platform and expand the team.

“We are excited to partner with Matrix to fill the huge gap in the business travel market. Our state-of–the-art technology coupled with behavioral science helps align the incentives of the company and the traveler,” said Mayank Kukreja, co-founder, Itilite, in a statement.

Corporate travel is a $30 billion industry in India, which is largely fragmented and serviced by mom-and-pop offline travel management companies. Most companies struggle with meeting employee expectations while preventing a major escalation in travel costs. Itilite’s approach is to reward employees for travel savings and the startup claims that this approach has helped its customers lower travel cost by 30 percent.

“Itilite learns employee preferences and surfaces personalized travel options, making the booking process smarter and seamless,” said Anish Khadiya, co-founder, Itilite.

Matrix Partners India has Rs 4,500 crore under management and invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early and early growth stages. It has invested in companies such as Ola (local transportation), Quikr (online classifieds), Practo (digital health platform), Treebo (digital hotel chain), Limeroad (mobile social commerce marketplace), Razorpay (payments), Belong (recruitment platform) among others.

“Itilite’s innovative SaaS product takes a lot of the friction out of the process. In addition, it also drives cost saving for clients that creates direct bottom-line impact”, said Gourav Bhattacharya, Vice President, Matrix Partners India.

An extremely active investor, this year, Matrix Partners invested in an undisclosed amount in Gobasco, an agri-tech startup, fin-tech firms ZipLoan and CreditVidya, besides participating in the series C funding round of Treebo Hotel that was led by Hong Kong-based investment firms Ward Ferry Management and Karst Peak Capital, among others.

The travel space in India is abuzz with both investments and consolidation  moves. A few days ago, in the largest M&A transaction in the space this year, Nasdaq-listed Ebix Inc, which supplies on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance, financial, e-governance and healthcare industries, agreed to acquire a Via.com, an omni-channel online travel and assisted e-commerce exchange. The transaction values the Bengaluru-headquartered firm at an enterprise value of about $74.9 million.