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Holiday information website HolidayIQ has announced its plans of raising a fresh round of funds from its existing investors, Tiger Global Management and Accel Partners to expand userbase in the mobile app segment. But, the amount of funds planned to be raised have not yet been disclosed by the company. The company recently expanded its team of data science professionals for the app development programme and the fresh funds will used to sustain the team.
“We are in talks to raise a fresh round of funding from our existing investors which is mainly for expanding our base in the mobile app segment as we feel that it is the next big thing,” said Hari Nair, Founder and CEO of HolidayIQ.
Since 2010, HolidayIQ has already had four rounds of fund raising from these investors. The upcoming investment is expected by the end of third quarter of the next financial year. According to the CEO’s estimations, in the next one year the number of smart phone users in the country will be increase by 300 Mn and that is what the company is mainly eyeing for.
“We are targeting top institutes of the country like IITs and IIMs to get quality people into the company and we have already employed a few from IIT Kharagpur,” quoted Nair.
HolidayIQ has over 37,000 accommodation choices in more than 1,300 destinations and its recently launched offline app, that is claimed to be a first of its kind, will surely be helping a number of people to find their needs in remote locations without internet connectivity. Also, according to the company, their website, which operates on user generated contents, has more than 3Mn contributors. Since its launch in November last year, the app has seen more than 98,000 downloads .
Founded in 2001 by Charles P. Coleman, American Hedge Fund Tiger Global Management makes investments in startups around the world. Apart from its New York based headquarters, the fund has offices in Beijing and Mumbai. The fund recently invested in China Based AliBaba and also in News In Shorts.
Focusing on Technology and Internet based startups, 1983 founded California Based Accel Partners is a venture and growth equity firm that funds companies from inception through the growth stage.
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