INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Travelstop is a new startup in Singapore that aims to bring the benefits of business travel management to SMEs and other smaller companies
in Southeast Asia.
The company launched its product today after being founded in November 2017 by three entrepreneurs who worked at
TravelMob, the Singapore startup bought by HomeAway in 2013
Prior to TravelMob, the trio —Prashant Kirtane (CEO),Vijay Aggarwal (CTO) andAltaf Dhamani (CPO) — worked together at Yahoo Southeast
Theyall moved over to HomeAway, which was later bought by Expedia for $3.9 billion in 2015and Travelstop is their first independent venture
following that spell.
That a huge amount of experience for a newly-formed startup in Southeast Asia, and already it has assembled a team of
12 with more vacancies open.
Kirtane told TechCrunch in an interview that 90 percent of business travel in Asia is unmanaged
That surprising since the region accounts for 40 percent of the $1.2 trillion global business travel market
He said that he and his co-founders can also recall the pain of unmanaged or rigid travel and expense systems and are vowing to solve it
with Travelstop.
The focus is on simplicity — Kirtane said Slack is its role model for design — with features such as clean UI,
automated expense reporting, flexible travel policy, and data-based insight to allow business teams to analyze travel and expense costs
The service includes desktop and mobile apps.
All of these are still missing in Southeast Asia — at least at the price that can appeal
to SMEs and startups — while often global services, such as Concur, aren''t sufficiently localized to cover low-cost airlines or a wider
(On this, I can agree!)
Many other toolscorporate tools are still rudimentary and haven''t progressed,& Kirtane added
&We&re looking to reachmid-size tech companies first, but the & longer-term proposition is to let employees onboard themselves.
Travelstop
is letting early customers use its product for free, but the business model that will arrive soon will be Saas-based
The team is also working to integrate existing systems, including Expensify, and other third-party services to let Travelstop users book
travel and claim expenses off-platform.
The company has raised $1.2 million to kick things off, and Kirtane said the startup may look to
raise more in early 2019 as it begins to expand its engineering and sales teams and launch local offices.
The seed round was led by
SeedPlus, the early-stage firm connected with Jungle Ventures, and an unnamed travel-focused firm in the United States Travelstop said
angelparticipants includedDan Lynn andVikram Malhi, ex-Expedia senior business leaders and founders of Zuzu Hospitality Solutions, David Ko,
who is president and COO of Rally Health, and Jarrod Howe, who isregional operations director at Hyper Island
Singapore.
