Four-month-old start-up WudStay acquires its two-year old rival

What makes WudStay stand out is its superfast trajectory, reports Tech in Asia

Almost everyone loves to travel – even on a tight budget. Often, accommodation is the biggest killjoy for such travellers. Like many other start-ups across the globe, India’s Wudstay is tackling this problem. It picks budget accommodation providers such as guesthouses and small hotels, improves their service and connects them to travellers. But what makes Wudstay stand out is its superfast trajectory.

• The company was founded in April this year.
• It launched operations in June with budget stays in Gurgaon and Jaipur.
• Its first round of funding was announced in July – $3 million from Mangrove Capital Partners and Nimbuzz CEO Vikas Saxena.
• It expanded to Manali, Delhi, Corbett, and Haridwar after the funding.
• Today, it revealed the acquisition of two-year-old Awesome Stays for faster expansion into more Indian cities.

With this acquisition, WudStay enters into six new markets: Varanasi, Goa, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Dehradun, and Pune. Deepak Sharma, CEO of Awesome Stays, and his team join Wudstay.
 

“The acquisition of Awesome Stays has come at a time when Wudstay is aggressively looking at expanding. Deepak [Sharma] has been running Awesome Stays for two years and his experience will help us a lot,” says Prafulla Mathur, founder and CEO of Wudstay. His plan is to get Wudstay to 65 new cities in the next 18 months.

This article is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.