RailYatri Raises Funding From Nandan Nilekani, Helion Ventures And Others

Noida-based web and mobile train travel app RailYatri has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from existing investors including Nandan Nilekani, Helion Ventures, Omidyar Partners, and Blume Ventures.

The raised funds will be used to enhance the company’s growth and introduce new services on its platform.

Founded by Manish Rathi, Kapil Raizada and Sachin Saxena in 2011, RailYatri is a crowdsourced platform for train- and travel-related services. It provides comprehensive information on train status, reservation status, seat availability, amenities, disruptions etc.

RailYatri uses deep-analytics technology to make intelligent predictions that help travellers make decisions for their upcoming journeys. The app uses a traveller’s mobile GPS to predict a train’s delay, and provides information regarding the platform number, coach position, and on-time history of a train.

Manish Rathi, CEO and co-founder, RailYatri said, “We have witnessed an unprecedented organic growth over the last several months and are quickly moving in the direction of becoming the largest travel app in the country. In many ways, such an enthusiastic participation from our investors revalidates our strong value proposition to the largest travel segment in India. Over the next 12 months we plan to establish RailYatri as a household name across the country.”

The company has also forayed into the segment of a travel-focussed marketplace. As per an official statement, it now offers travellers the facility to book onboard meals, bus tickets, hotel rooms etc.

Talking about the investment, Nandan Nilekani, former Chairman, UIDAI said, “My ongoing interactions with the extended RailYatri team has made me all the more excited about the impact which RailYatri can bring in using smart combination of mobile, data, payments and analytics to the common man in India. Their prediction algorithms are already delivering time & money savings for the travellers.”

RailYatri raised Pre-Series A funding from Helion Venture Partners and Omidyar Networks, in June 2015. Prior to that, in November 2014, it raised $486K from Blume Ventures.

In April this year, it raised an undisclosed amount in a round led by Nandan Nilekani. Existing investors participated in that round too.