Tnooz, Martin Cowen- Indonesian package tours and activities platform Tripvisto has secured $1 million in Series A funding, with Chinese investment firm Gobi Partners the main investor.
Gobi is active across Asia and is the lead investor in Tuniu.com, the Nasdaq-listed tour operator specialising in Chinese outbound travel.
Tripvisto is just over a year old, launching in August 2014 with East Ventures providing an undisclosed amount of seed capital.
It offers international and domestic tour packages and standalone activities, and has built up a supply which covers more than 50 countries worldwide. Thailand is its most popular outbound destination while Lombok, Komodo and Bromo lead the way domestically.
The $1 million has been earmarked for the usual activities – building up product, bringing in talent and ramping up its marketing efforts.
In 2014, 10 million Indonesians travelled abroad with the number of domestic travellers at 120 million. By 2020, it is estimated that the Indonesian middle class – the people who can afford to travel overseas – will reach 70 million, according to the official statement.
Gobi’s managing partner Thomas Tsao noted the “momentum from Indonesia’s demographic and economic growth.”
And he also said that “we will apply some of the lessons we learned from working with Tuniu to enhance Tripvisto’s business development.”
Tripvisto, and the Indonesian travel market as a whole, should be excited by this. Gobi led a $3 million Series A round for Tuniu in 2009 and a Series C worth $50 million two years later. When it floated on Nasdaq in May 2014 it raised $72m and at the time of writing has a market cap in excess of $1.4 billion.
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