Online Travel Agency ‘Via’ gets $10M funding from Sequoia – OTA space picks up steam again
By Manoj Govindassamy at 27 January, 2010, 2:06 pm
…The recent funding from Sequoia Capital to Online Travel Agency “Via” proves this and has infused fresh blood and hope to the whole segment.Via, formerly FlightRaja is fairly a new entrant in the Indian Online Travel space but has a turnover of Rs…. 5 years back, Online Travel Agency (OTA) business segment was one of the most sought after investments by the Venture Capitalists and Big Pockets. MakeMyTrip.com, TravelGuru.com, Yatra.com, Cleartrip.com (my favourite) all rooted from then.What was considered as one of the promising business verticals 5 yrs back, lost its shine sooner after series of bad news such as — Airlines starting their own online booking sites, substantial reduction in OTA commissions, economy downturn and air traffic decrease, airlines strike, etc., ….All other OTAs suffered many fold decrease in valuations.So, when we are thinking OTA space as NO more lucrative, the recent $10M funding by Sequoia Capital to “Via” is quite surprising and king of fresh blood infusion and hope to the entire OTA space. What I think the reason for “Via” being the best pick in …
Read More >>proto.in – nominate your startup, startup chat, investors
By Chandramouly Rathinasababathy at 17 November, 2009, 10:17 pm
Every entrepreneur needs a pitch to roll out their startups to a wider audience, raise funds from VCs and collaborate with their entrepreneurial community. So the long time thirst is now getting quenched by this common platform called proto.in where entrepreneurs, innovators get help from this community to overcome their bootstrapping struggles and to get [...]
Read More >>Web18’s In.com is now into Online tutoring – launches MySchool
By Manoj Govindassamy at 1 September, 2009, 12:38 am
…. internet arm of Network18 – one of the notable media companies in India) has recently launched an educational portal called MySchool. Right now looking at the myschool.in.com website, it isn’t clear what myschool is trying to achieve. It doesn’t look like other online educations and classroom companies and more focussed players like tutorvista, educomp, etc., MySchool is a ….. , a education management firm that specializes in planning, setting up and managing educational institutions. Though the current service is a content play, In.com is in talks with Ryan International school to power their education related infrastructure – right from setting up the parent-school interaction system (e.g. alerts) to students checking their details online etc. … … trying to accommodate everything possible in the internet under a single roof. Already In.com caters News, Music, Search, Mail, movies, games, shopping, hotels and now online tutorial. Each item it is delivering is a industry as such. May be they are trying to increase site traffic by delivering contents for all ages and interest. We have to wait to see …. …
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