Treebo Hotels raises Rs 112 crore from Bertelsmann, others

New Delhi: Bengaluru-based Treebo Hotels, a budget hotel room-booking platform, on Friday said it has raised Rs.112 crore in its Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the strategic investment arm of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann SE and Co. KGaA. The funding round also saw participation from existing investors SAIF Partners and Matrix Partners India.

The news was first reported by The Economic Times .

The company plans to use the fresh round of funds for furthering its expansion, strengthening its marketing outreach and enhancing its technology.

Treebo now plans to expand its footprint to more than 60 cities, and take its inventory from 3,000 to over 12,000 rooms across 450 properties over the next 12 months. These cities will include a mix of business and leisure destinations. The company also plans to launch new brand extensions, including a mid-scale brand and a leisure brand, while maintaining its core proposition of value-for-money across all these brands.

In June 2015, Treebo raised $6 million from SAIF Partners and Matrix Partners.

Earlier this month, Mint reported that Treebo was in advanced talks with Bertelsmann to raise funds.

“Treebo is serving a huge unmet need in the budget travel space—that of reliable and affordable accommodation. Over the last one year, they have maintained razor sharp focus on delivering a great guest experience, and have extensively deployed technology in all parts of their operations to accomplish this objective. We are excited to partner them in a journey towards building the most loved consumer brand in the hospitality space,” said Pankaj Makkar, managing director of BII.

Founded in 2015 by Sidharth Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary and Kadam Jeet Jain, Treebo currently has 125 hotels in 25 cities across the country in its network.

Treebo (Ruptub Solutions Pvt. Ltd) offers accommodation to travellers in the price range of Rs.1,000-3,000. Its properties come with amenities like clean linen, free Wi-Fi, complimentary breakfast, branded toiletries and complimentary beverages, among others.

“We believe partner success is closely linked to guest experience. We have therefore built deep relationships with hotel owners by partnering with them for their full inventory, and not just a few rooms. We invest heavily in technology, analytics, quality control and staff training to help our hotel partners,” said Sidharth Gupta, co-founder, Treebo.

“When we first invested in Treebo, it was because of the quality of the founding team, and the clarity of their approach. One year later, we are really glad to see the team sticking to the same approach, and seeing success with it. Treebo has become a trusted partner of the hotels it works with, and has shown the way to the industry by building an experience-focused brand, which others would want to emulate,” said Mayank Khanduja, principal, SAIF Partners.

The latest infusion of funds takes the total capital raised by the company till date to Rs.150 crore. Investec India was the exclusive financial adviser for the company for this funding round.

Budget hotel aggregator Oyo (Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd) is also looking to raise over Rs.413 crore through a proposed rights issue of shares to its existing shareholders.

Stayzilla, an online aggregator of budget hotels and homestays, raised over $13 million in a Series C round of funding from existing investors Matrix Partners and Nexus Ventures, Mint reported in May.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.