SUMMARY
With This Acquisition, Omni-Channel Traveltech Marketplace Aims To Strengthen Its B2B Products And Services Portfolio
In order to expand its B2B product portfolio, Mumbai-headquartered traveltech startup Goomo has acquired a B2B vehicle rental marketplace WagonBee. Founded by Navneet Misra and Vikash Singh in 2016, Noida-based WagonBee is currently present in over 40 cities across India with nearly 8,000 itineraries and connections.
Commenting on the announcement, Varun Gupta, CEO, Goomo stated, “The acquisition of WagonBee will help Goomo add road transportation services to its list of offerings, and further drive the brand’s promise of delivering end-to-end travel solutions to customers. Over and above this, the acquisition further reiterates our constant endeavour to build our overall tech competencies and develop the best technology-driven travel platform in the country.”
Founded by Varun Gupta in 2015, Goomo is an omni-channel traveltech startup offering travel products and services through online and offline channels.
The B2B car rental marketplace WagonBee enables travel agents and suppliers to rent a vehicle of their choice from over 5,000 registered vehicles ranging from hatchbacks and sedans to luxury coaches and buses, provided by 350+ verified vendors.
Operating across three verticals – consumer, corporate and B2B – Goomo claims to possess a 40% market share in the trade fair and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) segment. Having raised more than $50 Mn in funding from Emerging India, Goomo is currently in a phase of rapid growth.
The acquisition has come at a time when Ola and Uber, with their ‘Pass tickets’, have already stepped into B2B car rental services, and other players like Carzonrent and ECO rent a car are also encashing the corporate car rental opportunity.
The travel tech company Goomo’s total transacted value stands at $310 Mn. Its online platform serves more than 100K users every week, a figure that is doubling month after month. In the B2B segment, Goomo claims to be onboarding over 30,000 passengers each week.
On acquisition, Navneet Misra, co-founder, WagonBee stated, “The Indian car rental market is estimated to be around $15 Bn to 18 Bn and is expected to grow at 17 to 20% year-on-year. However, only about 10% of this market is organised and the rest is managed by several smaller operators. WagonBee and Goomo are a perfect synergistic match given the similarities in our understanding of this fragmented market.”
In a similar move, Goomo had earlier acquired Zopky, a holiday marketplace startup to build its presence in the holiday packages space. Over the last 12 months, the company has set up its online platform, created new products, acquired customers and established a partner-network. The company also plans to invest considerably in technology to streamline and automate the online booking process, provide white label solutions to its offline partners to provide a better experience to its customers.
