Exclusive: ITILITE Bags INR 100 Cr From Greenoaks, Matrix For International Expansion

Bengaluru-based B2B SaaS travel startup ITILITE has raised INR 100 Cr in its Series B funding round led by Greenoaks Capital. Existing investor Matrix Partners and Helion Ventures cofounder Ashish Gupta also invested in the round with the participation of VY Capital.

According to the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) filings accessed by Inc42, ITILITE has raised INR 42 Cr from Greenoaks capital while Matrix Partners invested INR 19.5 Cr. ITILITE raised INR 37.3 Cr and INR 38 Lakh from VY Capital and Gupta respectively.

As part of the deal, ITILITE has issued 100 equity and 15,036 preference shares to Greenoaks capital. VY Capital and Matrix Partners got 13,485 and 7017 preference shares while Gupta bagged 150 preference shares. The price per share for the deal stood at INR 27,676 with a nominal value of INR 30 and INR 10 for preference and equity shares respectively.

In response to Inc42‘s queries, an ITILITE spokesperson said that Covid-19 situation has temporarily impacted its business and revenue. Although the revenue has dipped temporarily, the company said it is still receiving interest from businesses across markets.

With the funds, ITILITE said that it is planning to accelerate international expansion and product development to meet the increasing demand which is expected to come soon from these markets. “The timing of the funding is also an indicator that the investor community has strong confidence in this digital transformation business travel is going through,” the company said.

Founded in 2017 by Anish Khadiya and Mayank Kukreja, ITILITE offers travel desk solution for corporates and helps them reduce their travel cost and improve booking experience, through a unique model of incentivising employees to save on their travel expense.

The startup covers bookings for flights, hotels, buses and other associated travel services. ITILITE’s USP is the incentive programme through which employees of its clients are rewarded for the savings they make for their company during travel.

ITILITE claims that over 150K travel managers and employees across from over 120 companies are managing their business travel processes using its platform. The company’s client portfolio includes over 200 companies including Myntra, Byjus, Swiggy, Jockey, Capillary, Toshiba, among others.

Prior to this, ITILITE had raised $4.2 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in its Series A round led by Matrix Partners. Helion’s Gupta had also participated in the round. “Since our Series A round in January last year, we have achieved a 5X growth,” ITILITE told us.

Matrix Partners had also invested in ITILITE in its seed funding round in 2017. The company was a part of the fourth cohort of Oracle’s Startup Cloud Accelerator Programme in India which was conducted in 2017.

In the aftermath of the ongoing economic slowdown, the aviation and tourism industry is said to be worst impacted by the lockdown. With no flights operating and people not allowed to come out of their homes, the travel industry is dealing with many uncertainties.

To mitigate the impact, many travel startups have resorted to layoffs while salary cuts have become a new norm in the segment. However, a few of them are aiming to not go to this route by raising fresh funding.

For example, Gurugram-headquartered online travel company MakeMyTrip has recently raised INR 73.5 Cr in two tranches from Mauritius-based entity — MakeMyTrip Limited. So, it would be innocuous to say that ITILITE might also use the fundings to stay afloat in these hard times.

Meanwhile, ITILITE has also built several new features into the platform in response to Covid-19 situation, The platform now lists a ‘Covid safe’ categories of hotels which are following WHO precautionary guidelines.