India-based online travel platform HappyEasyGo has closed its series B-plus round having secured nearly Rs 3.5bn ($49m) from investors including electronics manufacturer Samsung, through Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.
United Overseas Bank’s UOB Venture Management subsidiary, Korea Investment Partners (KIP), 10 Fund, CVCapital, Zero2IPO Ventures and M&S Partners also participated, along with unnamed additional investors.
HappyEasyGo operates an online platform where customers can book airline tickets at low prices using its price optimisation engine, and it has recently expanded into bookings for hotel accommodation.
The capital will go to growing the company’s core business in India in addition to the establishment of its hotel division through a localisation strategy.
Boris Zha, HappyEasyGo’s founder and chief executive, said: “The completion of this financing is an outstanding milestone for HappyEasyGo which would help us expand the scale of our operations, increase market share, and upgrade the existing products.
“By the end of December, we expect our hotel business to be running over 3,000 bookings a day. India is the third largest air-travelling country in the world and we are confident to utilise the fresh funds towards gaining a commanding position in the cluttered online travel market in India.”
The company has not revealed official details of past funding but Samsung, KIP and Citic Capital supplied it with series A-plus funding in September 2018.
The company had raised $130m as of April this year according to China Travel News, which reported that KIP, 10 Fund, Homshin Partners, Zero2IPO Capital and CV Capital had recently provided it with $35m to $50m in its series B round.
