 "He helped create Snapdeal. Now his start-up GoFro will build your vacation")
Amitabh Misra is one of the lucky few that got to build Snapdeal from its early days. As the company’s former CTO, he began work on the platform toward the end of 2011. He watched it go from taking a handful of orders a day to becoming a multi-million dollar business. Then, last year, he left.
In June this year, he unveiled Delhi-based GoFro (previously called Bona Vita), an online travel planning and booking marketplace focused on Indian travellers. An end-to-end online travel agent, it combines flight, hotel, and transportation booking with an itinerary planner.
Users can also indicate a “theme” they want the trip to follow. Themes include romance, beaches, bachelor parties, honeymoons, or budget travel. The start-up will even throw in SIM cards for the destination country.
Trip packages range from $736 to $28,000. From each sale, GoFro takes a 10 to 15 per cent commission.
Ctrip-backed travel start-up MakeMyTrip has poured $5 million into GoFro and is its majority stakeholder. MakeMyTrip has its own customisable itinerary planner – a new feature. Instead of a theme, travellers specify the pace they want for their trip. The planner packs it with activities accordingly.
It’s only been six months since the start-up’s inception, and GoFro has experienced its own share of growing pains. When I check up on some of the goals Amitabh and his team have set for the company, he tells me that things are growing a little slower than planned. The company had planned to support 30 destinations in 14 countries by the year’s end but only supports around 20.
This is an excerpt from the article published on Tech In Asia. You can read the full article here.
This is an excerpt from the article published on Tech In Asia. You can read the full article here.
