[Funding alert] SaaS-based travel startup ITILITE raises $29M in Series C round

Itilite, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) travel and expense management platform, has raised $29 million in Series C round led by Tiger Global and Dharana Capital. 

Existing investors Matrix Partners India and Tenacity Ventures also participated in the round. 

Bengaluru-based ITILITE was founded in 2017 by IIT-Delhi and IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus Mayank Kukreja, and IIT-Kharagpur and IIM-Lucknow graduate Anish Khadiya. The startup helps businesses to automate their travel and expense processes, increasing efficiency and reducing costs. 

ITILITE will use the capital to invest more in product innovations, brand building, and scaling up its go-to-market teams, it said in a release.

“With the latest fundraise, we will accelerate our go-to-market journey and deepen our large company relationships,” Anish Khadiya, Co-Founder and CBO says. 

“People are back to offices and business travel is back in the conversation. Business travel bookings are surging and we are witnessing thousands of trips happening on our platform all over again, and this is just a new beginning,” Mayank adds. 

Since its last fundraise in April 2020, when it raised $13 million in its Series B led by Greenoaks Capital and Vy Capital. Matrix Partners India, the company has registered a 5x growth. This has been despite the lockdowns and lack of movement owing to COVID-19. 

The company claims to have grown 500 percent in the last two years. 

The startup’s Artificial Intelligence-based virtual Travel & Expense (T&E) consultant "Mastermind" provides real-time recommendations based on data insights. 

With these insights ITILITE’s customers, which include Automation Anywhere, Byjus, Swiggy, Zetwerk among others,  can optimise their T&E spending and processes. More than 500,000 users  and 300 companies in India and the US use ITILITE, the startup says. 

Tiger Global Partner Griffin Schroeder says, “We are excited to partner with ITILITE as it reimagines business travel and expense management. Its integrated offering and easy-to-use system provides greater control and data visibility. It’s no surprise then that we are seeing strong user adoption in many geographies, including the US.”