Goomo raises $50 million from PE fund Emerging India

Goomo, an online travel and holiday booking platform, has raised raised $50 million (Rs 321.6 crore) from Mauritius-based private equity firm Emerging India, according to a report by The Economic Times. The platform is operated by Singapore- and Mumbai-based Goomo Holdings Services India Private Limited.

Goomo, which was earlier a traditional travel-focused company Orbit Corporate and Leisure Tours, was formed after Emerging India acquired the parent company in November 2015, and then launched the online platform, Goomo.com, in March 2017.

Goomo currently offers services such as booking flights, holiday packages (both domestic and international) and attending trade fairs. The company is expected to add hotel bookings, buses and trains among other services soon, according to information available on its website.

“Goomo is being built ground up to be an omnichannel platform that will facilitate corporate and consumer travel bookings across online and offline channels,” said Varun Gupta, chief executive of the company.

In February this year, Hindu Business Line reported that Emerging India had invested about $180 million in acquiring Orbit Corporate and Leisure Travels Ltd. Gupta had then told the business daily that the brand will have an offline as well as online side to it.

Emerging India, a Mauritius-based private equity fund, is primarily a growth-stage investor that invests across multiple asset classes, including, long-only equities, fixed income, credit strategies, private equity and fund of funds. In India, the investment fund has, till date, largely focused on capital markets.

In the past few years, the travel space has observed a fast pace growth in investment. Recently, MakeMyTrip raised $330 million (Rs 2,116 crore) from South African technology group Naspers, Chinese travel firm Ctrip.com and other investors. In March this year, Gurgaon-based Le Travenues Technology Pvt Ltd, which runs online travel search engine ixigo, raised $15 million (about Rs 100 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Sequoia Capital.