SUMMARY
Mohak Nahta founded the digital visa platform Atlys in 2021, which claims to be the world’s only platform that can commit an exact time of visa arrival
Atlys has raised $12 Mn in its Series A funding round from Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners, and others to provide visas for travelling to more countries and build its fintech tools
Tapping into the global e-visa market, which is expected to become a $4.03 Bn opportunity by 2032, Atlys is today operational in over 100 nations
To travel the world is on the to-do list of most of us. While some may restrict it to a few foreign destinations, the demand for international travel continues to grow unabated. However, even after complying with all the hassles that go into the tedious process of filing documents to get required approvals, there are no guarantees that the visa of a particular country will land in your hands.
To solve this pain point, Mohak Nahta founded the digital visa platform Atlys in 2021, which claims to be the world’s only platform that can commit an exact time to applicants as to when their visas will arrive.
Speaking about how Atlys came into being, founder Nahta said, “Every country requires the same information in a bid to sanction visas. So, I thought what if you could take all the information once, automate and build a standardised layer? And that was the genesis of Atlys.”
After enabling the e-visa applications for 65 countries from India over the last two years, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Jordan, Japan, and Georgia, Atlys plans to do this for more than 150 countries in the next four months.
For this, the Delhi-based startup today (September 21) announced that it has raised $12 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Elevation Capital and Peak XV Partners. The round also saw participation from its existing investors musical duo Chainsmokers, Pinterest founders, South Park Commons, and others.
The startup also aims to enhance the platform’s technological foundation through smart integrations and expand its product line and team.
Notably, the fresh capital infusion will help Atlys tap into the burgeoning global e-visa market, which is expected to reach $4.03 Bn in size by 2032 from $1.82 Bn in 2023 as the world moves towards embracing digital processes.
Atlys has raised $17.25 Mn since its inception, including the latest round of funds.
So, How Is Atlys Empowering Travellers?
While e-visas are becoming more common, there is still significant uncertainty associated with the timelines and approvals. That’s the first hurdle Atlys claims to have crossed.
“If we think about travel as an experience, we get the flight tickets as we pay for them, similarly, we pay for hotels and get the reservation. But for a visa, we pay and don’t know when we will get it. So, it’s the only uncertain part of travel, yet the most important one, that’s unsolved,” Nahta said.
However, according to the founder, Atlys commits to the exact time – the day, hour, and minute – when an applicant would receive a visa and has a 99.2% success rate in adhering to the timeline. If not, applicants get a refund and the visa charges are on Atlys.
The startup has achieved such an accuracy level after collecting millions of data points from processing thousands of visas, which has also helped it build an advanced predictive engine. Besides, it also works closely with governments to ensure a smooth approval process.
For the applicants, the application process includes opening the Atlys app or its website, taking a selfie, and scanning the passport. While applying for a visa on the platform, the applicants receive an ETA commitment. Once paid, they can track the real-time status of the visa application. Interestingly, applying for one visa on Atlys makes the applicants visa-ready for most other countries.
“Our mission is to enable every person on Earth to travel freely, and enabling has two components – one is giving people access and the other is empowerment. On the first part, giving people access, we want to give as many Indians access to as many countries in the world,” Nahta said, adding that the fresh inflow of funds will give a further boost to this mission.
Speaking about empowering travellers, Nahta said that Atlys also aims to help them with other aspects of travel, for example, providing credit options, forex, helping people optimise their international travel spend, and others.
Right now, the startup is in the process of building fintech tools, which the founder plans to launch over the next few months and years to become a comprehensive travel tech solution platform, with digital visa enablement at the core.
Nahta claimed that the startup has grown more than 8X in the last 8-9 months, however, restricted himself from divulging revenue figures.
Building A Niche In The Visa Market
Speaking about the fund infusion, Mayank Khanduja, partner, Elevation Capital, said, “Atlys’ commitment to removing visa-related barriers aligns with the growing aspirations of Indians to explore the world.”
“Our partnership with Mohak represents a significant step towards Atlys’ efforts to streamline global mobility. Their strategy to offer a new-age visa service that’s economical, risk-free and data-driven will encourage quicker adoption of newer, more efficient procedures,” Khanduja added.
We must also note that Atlys is not only enabling travel requirements for Indians but global citizens. Besides India, the platform is today available in over 100 countries.
In an attempt to increase the reach of the platform, the startup works in both B2C and B2B segments.
B2C is the major revenue contributor, while the B2B offering for travel agents, started in July last year, is also growing at a satisfactory pace, the founder said.
Largely focussed on catering to the e-visa requirements that do not require physical presence for verification and biometrics, Atlys also supports visas to countries that require physical presence through its premium service, Atlys Black.
Although there are a few other platforms such as VisaHQ and iVisa.com, the most important differentiating factor that Atlys claims to bring to the table is its hassle-free and on-time delivery of visas.
As per a report, the global tourism market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.4%, reaching $16.9 Tn by 2030. With marquee investors on its cap table, it would be interesting to witness how Atlys leverages this opportunity in the years to come.
