Sell to the traveler and you fight for every booking. Delhi’s TravClan sells to the agent instead, and investors keep paying for that choice.
The company closed $5 million from Flipkart and August One, topped up with debt from Trifecta Capital. Lifetime funding now tops $11 million and counts Leo Capital, TheVentures, Hashed among earlier backers.
Owning the supply side
Its platform wraps supply, software and fulfillment together: pricing, itineraries, reservations, payments, client messaging and ground help for flights, hotels, activities and holiday packages. Supply comes from direct contracts rather than a reseller’s feed, and field staff cover Southeast Asia, the Middle East and India across 18-plus markets.
Agents in India number more than 15,000 on the platform, which carries above $100 million in yearly travel sales. Small-city agencies anchor the book: roughly 40% of activity traces to Tier II and Tier III locations where independent operators lack much software.
Arun Bagaria, co-founder and chief executive, expects the category to shift from faster searching to actual execution. He wants TravClan to be the layer other travel businesses build on, and says the capital lets the firm invest hard behind that bet.
Investors point to the supply-first model as the differentiator. Sahil Kukreja, a vice president at Trifecta Capital, credits a capital-efficient approach built on owning inventory instead of buying demand. Rajul Garg of Leo Capital, aboard since the seed round, recalls backing the team when owning supply looked slow, and argues it compounds through better prices and trips that hold up when something breaks.
Flipkart’s stake surfaced on October 5, a minority position meant to bolster international holiday packages across Cleartrip and Flipkart Travel. The founding trio – Bagaria, Chirag Agrawal and Ashish Thapliyal – launched the firm in October 2018 after stints at OYO, TravelTriangle and Cars24.
