Online hotel reservations startup MiStay secures seed fund

Online reservation startup MiStay has secured seed fund from Axilor Ventures and a consortium of angel investors. However, the amount is undisclosed. Axilor Ventures is led by Infosys co-founders Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal.

The firm plans to use the fund for hiring, marketing, and to expand its operations.

Founded in 2016 by Indian Institute of Technology Madras alumni Sandeep Jaiswal and Pranav Prabhakar, the startup is operational in 30 locations and claims to have around 400 hotels on its network. Its partner hotels include branded chains such as The Park Hotels, Pride Hotels, Sarovar Hotels, Keys Hotels, Treebo Hotels and Mango Hotels. MiStay claims that its customer base has grown seven times in the last six months.

The company offers slot-wise hotel bookings. The customers based on need. A day is divided into three slots: morning (8:00 am – 11:00 am); day (12:00 noon – 7:00 pm); and night (8:00 pm – 7:00 am).

The company claims to have a customer-centric approach for hotel bookings.

In August, Axilor announced the graduation of fifth batch of startups from its accelerator. Half of these ventures have already secured funding, Axilor said, adding that the average size of the fund-raise was Rs 2.5 crore. The total amount of funding raised by this cohort is Rs 32 crore (about $5 million).

Earlier this month, Bangalore-based Open Appliances Pvt. Ltd, a startup that makes smart locks, had raised $550,000 (Rs 3.6 crore) from Axilor Ventures and Kumar Vembu, co-founder of Chennai-based enterprise-tech firm ZOHO.

Companies like MakeMyTrip, Yatra and Cleartrip, as well as accommodation start-ups such as Oyo and Treebo, are competing in online hotel booking space.

According to the report, gross hotel bookings are poised to grow to $10.9 billion by 2020, while the percentage of bookings made online will increase to 28% from 19% currently. As much as 78% of the overall online hotel bookings will be routed through OTAs, throwing up a $2.3 billion opportunity for such businesses, added report.

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