Fireside Chat: Building India’s largest stays marketplace – the Stayzilla Story
“The value and budget stay market (INR 2500 or below) in India is an estimated 300,000 room per night/day market. Yet the online penetration for these room bookings is only 2%. For other travel verticals such as airline bookings there is a ~80% penetration, train bookings ~40% penetration and Volvo bus bookings ~70% penetration. This indicates a problem and an opportunity to add value. Stayzilla is solving this interesting problem by playing the role of a stays marketplace,” says Yogendra Vasupal, co-founder and CEO, Stayzilla.
Stayzilla matches consumer needs with the relevant property through their understanding of this segment, presence of self learning algorithms which predict inventory status across towns and assist properties to optimize prices and concierge services.
Avnish Bajaj, co–founder and Managing Director of Matrix Partners India, says, “Stayzilla operates at the intersection of some exciting trends – increasing penetration of all types of stays bookings online by value and variety conscious travellers and a large number of unique yet differentiated properties and alternate stays using Mobile and Internet as a distribution channel. Yogi and the team are building India’s largest stays marketplace, providing consumers an experience that is order of magnitude better than alternate solutions while simultaneously helping property owners with tools and intelligence to grow their business. We are privileged and excited to be part of Stayzilla’s growth journey over the last few years”
An entrepreneur who wants to solve a real problem, a large market opportunity and a partner to support him scale his dreams – that’s what Stayzilla’s story looks like, but according to Yogendra, it is just the beginning and there is still a long way he wants to go.
Hear this passionate entrepreneur and the seasoned investor as they share their personal experiences and engage in a candid conversation on building India’s largest stays marketplace online/bringing India’s budget stays market online!
When: August 5th
Where: Hablis, Near Airport, Chennai
Agenda
Registration: begins at 4:30pm
Fireside Chat – ‘Building India’s largest stays marketplace’: 5:15pm – 6:15pm
Networking over snacks & drinks: 6:15 pm onwards
About Yogendra Vasupal
Yogendra Vasupal is the co-founder & CEO of Stayzilla, India’s largest online purveyor of budget & value stay options cutting across hotels, homestays, lodges and all manner of alternative accommodation options with a portfolio exceeding 14,000 stay options spread across 1000+ cities across the length & breadth of India. An internet & technology enthusiast from a young age, Yogi loved creating things and identified ‘online accommodation booking’ as a future trend in early, when ecommerce was beginning to take shape in India. A non-conformist and maverick by nature, Yogi happens to be an engineering college dropout, preferring to paint his own life canvass and learning plan. Perhaps early indications of his entrepreneurial streak. Stayzilla, a Chennai based startup is backed by Indian Angel Network at the angel round in March 2012 and Matrix Partners in October 2013.
About Avnish Bajaj
Avnish Bajaj is the co–founder and Managing Director of Matrix Partners India, which is an investment firm with INR 3000 cr under management. Matrix India invests across early and growth stages of businesses in select sectors – Internet & Mobile, Healthcare, Financial Services, Education and Consumer Products & Services. Previously Avnish was the co–founder, Chairman and CEO of India’s Largest Online Marketplace – Baazee.com – which was acquired by eBay. eBay India today is the largest eCommerce Marketplace in India. He is a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School, WARF Fellow from University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Computer Science graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
This is an invite only event. Please register here and we will get back to you with a confirmation.
