[Funding alert] Travel protection startup Railofy raises Rs 4 Cr in seed round from Roots Ventures, Better Capital, others

Railofy, a startup that offers travel protection to railway passengers against waitlist (WL) and reservation against cancellation (RAC), on Wednesday announced that it has raised an additional Rs 4 crore in its seed round led by Roots Ventures, Astarc Ventures, Better Capital, and other prominent angel investors.

The round also saw Anand Srinivasan, ex-Revenue Head GoAir, and Sunil Kumar, ex-Joint GM (Portals) IRCTC, join the company as mentors.

Earlier in September this year, the Mumbai-based startup raised Rs 7 crore from Chiratae Ventures for the same round.

According to the company statement, the fresh fund will be used to cater to passenger demand in the upcoming festive rush and to strengthen the presence pan-India to enable protection cover for all train classes across 2,000+ passenger trains by 2021.  

Founded by Rohan Dedhia, Vaibhav Saraf, and Hrishabh Sanghvi in September 2019, Railofy started its operations in early 2020 with select trains in Mumbai.

Speaking about the new development, the founders of Railofy said, "At Railofy, we are committed to ensuring convenient, affordable, and timely travel for every railway passenger who has been waitlisted. We are seeing a good customer response even in the current pandemic, which testifies to the intensity of the problem faced by the average Indian when his train ticket is not confirmed.” 

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Since its inception, Railofy claims to have issued thousands of protections, especially to migrants traveling back to metros in search of jobs, students for upcoming entrance exams, and travellers for the upcoming festive season rush. By leveraging technology such as AI and Machine Learning, Railofy is ensuring that railway passengers reach their destinations at the lowest price possible.

Commenting on the fundraise, Ravinder Vashist, Partner, Roots Ventures, said, “Waitlist travelling is a long outstanding problem for rail passengers in India, and at the same time, they struggle to find alternate modes of travel in such instances is draining without appropriate solutions. Railofy, with its data-driven approach of underwriting and offering a unique solution to passengers in a large travel market in India, is ready to disrupt the travel insurance segment.”