SAIF Partners and Matrix Venture Partners have invested $6 million in tech-enabled budget hotel chain Treebo. The company was founded earlier this year by former Myntra executives Sidharth Gupta and Rahul Chaudhary, along with Kadam Jeet Jain.
Matrix Partners India and SAIF Partners invest $6mn in Treebo http://t.co/VfvmcdoJdD@tarun_davda@SAIFPartners@TreeboHotels
— Matrix India (@matrixindiavc) June 23, 2015
Treebo is currently active only in Bangalore and claims an inventory of over 200 rooms so far in St. Marks Road, Koramangala and M.G. Road. As indicated by this Times of India report, they plan to scale up to to 5,000 rooms across 20 cities, Currently rooms at Treebo start at Rs 1,099 and offers customers the usual fare of free WiFi, clean rooms and bedding, air conditioning, television and breakfast.
Competition
Treebo enters a crowded place in the budget hotels space and it remains to be seen how it will differentiate itself from the current crop of players who are already operating in the same space.
– In March, Branded budget hotel rooms marketplace OYO Rooms secured $20 million in a funding round led by Greenoaks Capital and other existing investors.
– Interestingly Matrix Partners also participated in a $20 million series B round of funding for Stayzilla. Operated by Inasra Technologies Private Limited, Stayzilla is a hotel booking portal which allows users to search and book hotels across Indian cities with a specific focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities in the country. The site also offers options to filter results based on budget, amenities, ratings, cuisine and other variables.
– In May, Zostel, a chain of backpacker hostels for young travellers, has raised Rs 5 crore in a first round of funding from Malaysia-based angel investor Presha Paragash.
– Treebo also has to contend with reverse bidding sites such as Findmystay and 90bids.com where travellers quote prices they are willing to pay and the website offers them hotels with closest fares.
