Bertelsmann leads $17m Series B for India's Treebo

Existing investors SAIF Partners and Matrix Partners India, which led a $6 million Series A round for the company last year, also participated; the new capital will be used to improve Treebo's marketing and branding efforts and develop its technology back end. The company will also grow its geographical reach in India, hoping to reach 450 hotels in 60 cities in the next 12 months, up from its current level of 125 hotels in 25 cities.

Founded last year by former executives from Myntra and MyGola, Treebo aims to offer users a higher standard of accommodation than typically seen in India's budget hotel space. Its partner hotels guarantee amenities such as clean linen and bedding and free Wi-Fi.

Unlike other hotel aggregators, which typically allow hotels to list their rooms on other booking sites, Treebo requires its partners to work with it exclusively to manage their bookings, and to list all their rooms on its platform. The company's products include the apps Bumblebee, which helps hotels manage their operations, and Friends of Treebo, which members of the community can use to send feedback on hotel quality directly to the company.

"We invest heavily in technology, analytics, quality control, and staff training to help our hotel partners," Sidharth Gupta, one of the co-founders, told YourStory. "It is important for us that each and every one of our partners does well, and not just a few of them. This, we believe, is the key to ensuring a consistent, high-quality experience at all our properties."

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• India
• Bertelsmann Asia Investments
• Matrix Partners
• SAIF Partners
• TMT