Online travel company TravelTriangle recently organised a session on GST for travel agents associated with their platform. TravelTriangle roped in reputed law firm Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys to facilitate the session, which was conducted by Kapil Kumar Sharma. Aimed at educating TravelTriangle’s travel partners about the impending GST rollout and its implications on their business, the seminar gave attendees an overview of GST and changes in the taxation structure. Changes in law governing the travel industry in context of a marketplace were also discussed, as were the compliance requirements under the GST regime and the grey areas that still exist. Other critical aspects, such as the transition from the current market approach to the ‘One Nation, One Tax, One Market’ model proposed under the GST, were also deliberated over in detail. Speaking on the reason behind the undertaking, Yuvraj Khemani, Finance Controller, TravelTriangle said, “While the GST rollout is expected to benefit all stakeholders in the fast-growing Indian travel industry, the actual impact of the new tax regime is still not completely understood by a vast majority of businesses across the country. This was a knowledge gap that we wanted to address with this session. TravelTriangle always endeavours to support its partners at every step of their business journey and this session was a step in the same direction.” The company has launched a GST guide focussing on the travel-relevant aspects of the GST rollout, and has set up a dedicated email address for agents to mail their GST-related queries. Apart from that, TravelTriangle is also training its internal teams to aid agents with the GST registration process as well as its operational aspects.
Read More »TravelTriangle raises funding of $10million
TravelTriangle has recently raised $10 million in series B funding from RB Investments. Sankalp Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO, TravelTriangle, said, “We have grown faster than OTAs in the leisure segment and now fast approaching their scale. With the association with RB Investments in this round we will achieve our vision faster. Our success up till now has been the effort of our super motivated team. As we charter the next phase of growth, my aim is to bring together the best in the industry and make TravelTriangle an employer of choice.” This funding round saw participation from existing investors SAIF Partners and Silicon Valley venture fund Bessemer Venture Partners. Within a year of inception, TravelTriangle had raised an angel funding of Rs 60 lakh from a group of individual investors. It then raised a pre-Series A investment of $1.7 million from SAIF Partners in July 2014 and closed series A financing of $8 million from Bessemer Venture in April 2015. Harshavardhan Bothra from RB Investments, said, “What sets them apart are their operators. We see TravelTriangle marketplace as the key beneficiary of fast-growing outbound holiday market and increasing fragmentation of offline travel agents. Increasing consumers expectations and needs make travel agents and related industry players indispensable which results into great opportunity for TravelTriangle. Upon comparing global companies to determine ideal cost structure and margin profile for market dominance in any country, our conclusion is that TravelTriangle is in a sweet spot.”
Read More »