Yatra Acqui-Hires Travel-Logs, A Startup That Specialises In Organising Customised City Walks & Private Tours

Gurgaon-based travel portal, Yatra.com, has acqui-hired Mumbai-based Travel-logs, which specialises in organising customised city walks and private tours. The financial terms of the deal has been left undisclosed, reported ET.

As a part of the deal, Dhiresh Sharma, founder of Travel-logs, will join Yatra as head of its new segment – Metro X – to be launched in Mumbai by the end of February. It will curate experiences across Indian cities revolving around different themes.

Founded in 2012 by Dhiresh Sharma, Travel-logs offers the opportunity to explore a city’s heritage, culture, art and architecture through its guided tours. Besides, it also manages customized tours for corporate and educational institutions.

Dhiresh Sharma, founder of Travel-logs said, “People who live in the city should be able to see value in the city and this is what drives us. We try to create value out of the age-old heritage and culture, which not many people know.”

In 2014, the firm conducted a tour of south Mumbai for the Asia Business Council with personalities such as Pheroza Godrej (wife of Jamshyd Godrej), chairman of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co Ltd, and Vodafone global chairman Gerard Kleisterlee among others.

As for Yatra, it is a one-stop-shop for all travel-related services including airline reservation, hotel bookings, holiday packages, rail and bus tickets. The company claims to have 15 Mn unique visitors every month.

“It is about experiencing your own city and the idea is to curate all the experience in a metro – whether it is cycling tours, walking tours, food trail, etc – which is available within the city,” said Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com.

With so much happening in the travel tech segment, Yatra.com’s acqui-hiring Travel-logs is an example where one company takes over another just for the skills and expertise of its staff and not for its products or services.

In May 2015, HolidayIQ, acquired travel mobile development team from SourceN. Later in August – mobile travel search marketplace, ixigo, acquired all intellectual property of Desi Backpacking Travelers Pvt. Ltd., the company that runs IndianBackpacker.com, a community for budget travellers.