[Funding alert] Treebo raises Rs 10 Cr from Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rebel Foods' Jaydeep Barman, Deepak Parayanken

After raising $6 million in a new round of funding from existing investors, including Matrix Partners India, SAIF Partners, Bertelsmann India Investments, and Ward Ferry — Treebo today announced that it has raised Rs 10 crore from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO, Paytm; Jaydeep Barman, Co-founder and CEO, Rebel Foods; and Deepak Parayanken, Managing Director of Mozambique Holdings, and others. The round was primarily led by Deepak.

Shantanu Deshpande, Co-founder and CEO of Bombay Shaving Company; Siddharth Velakacharla, Partner at Indus Capital Partners; Gautam Gurnani, Vice President - Investments at Dubai Holding, along with several senior executives from McKinsey, Amazon and Microsoft, also participated in this round.

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Commenting on the investment, Sidharth Gupta, Co-founder, Treebo said in a press statement,

"The belief demonstrated by these investors — all seasoned business professionals themselves — in Treebo despite the current challenging times is precious for us. They are taking a bet on the long-term prospects and the strong fundamentals of the business, which is hugely encouraging. We are excited about not just their capital but also the valuable advice and guidance they can offer."

Like in the previous round, the hospitality startup aims to focus on strengthening its defences against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly impacted the travel sector. Through the funding, the team will continue building cutting-edge technology products for its business.

The team will also focus on its SaaS business 'Hotel Superhero' that offers an integrated cloud-based hotel management software to hotels and chains. Treebo also has Treebo Hygiene Shield to tighten its safety protocols in view of COVID-19.

A press statement shared by the company added all operational hotels of the company are regularly audited on their compliance of COVID-19 related safety standards, and are accordingly given a gold or platinum hygiene shield rating on the website. Treebo has a portfolio of 600+ hotels in 100+ cities.  

Commenting on the investment, Deepak Parayanken said, “As investors in the hospitality and real estate space ourselves, we understand the role that technology and a good brand play in the success of any hospitality business. Treebo has developed strong capabilities in both these areas. That's what attracted us towards the company. Their hotel management software, Hotel Superhero, is something that hotels of all sizes and shapes across the world can benefit from. Their unique playbook of providing quality assurance to customers and better monetisation to hotel owners in the budget segment is also something that has global potential.”

Treebo's EBIDTA losses in February 2020 were down to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 5 crore earlier. The startup had been looking for achieving profitability by 2021, but the plan was delayed due to the pandemic. Treebo, however, is positive that the hospitality industry will soon grow, and it can march towards profitability soon.