Here's why this Indian travel startup has become profitable

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Travel sector is growing phenomenally with Indians booking tickets on the fly. As the market is set to grow from 18 million to 30-50 million outbound travelers in the next 5-7 years, there is fleet of travel start-ups in the market currently but one of them claims to have turned profitable this financial year.
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Established in October 2011, TravelTriangle is India’s first full stack holiday marketplace with a team of 400 people, and a team of 650+ expert agents across the globe. The company wanted to connect travelers with safe, reliable, local and verified holiday planners in various destinations around the world. The USP of the company, undoubtedly, is its personalized approach, intelligent product and reliable fulfillment. The company has served travelers from 60 countries and has successfully served over 20 lakh+ travelers visiting the website every month with 65+ destinations on its platform.
Business Insider spoke to Sankalp Agarwal, CEO & Co-Founder, TravelTriangle who said that while the company has turned unit-wise profitable, they are aiming to be EBITDA profitable in next year, “We have seen the impact that agent networks in the marketplace have had so far, and with more suppliers joining us, travelers will further benefit through cheaper prices and a wider range of high-quality services. As more suppliers successfully scale their operations, their ability to offer lower prices and better services has increased, bringing more customers on to the platform. We are also expanding our market by providing new inventory that never existed in the market like weekend getaway packages, experiential holidays, etc.” TravelTriangle, India’s largest and fastest growing marketplace, has set yet another benchmark, achieving unit economics profitability (earning revenues on every transaction post marketing, payment gateway, support & ops cost) and securing a gross marginal value of Rs. 350+ crore as of March 2017. The company became Contribution Margin Net Marketing (CMNM) positive in 6 key geographies in June 2016 including an international market. As of April 2017, TravelTriangle has achieved unit economics profitability across all geographies in the market.

The start-up banks on ccustomization as the key to improving product and meeting the evolving demands and choices of consumers and provides 3 unique services for travellers:

1. Multiple quotes from verified & reviewed travel agents: The smart algorithm matches travellers with multiple leading travel specialists who are best qualified to design the dream itinerary. Multiple quotes give travellers a comparison of prevalent options and provide easy price discovery & savings.

2. Make it the customer’s way: Travel agents work along with the traveller to plan the itinerary by understanding the traveller’s needs and then customize further as per requirements. Customization is an important tool enables travellers to book affordable holidays with travel agents.
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3. Assured Last Mile Delivery: Each travel specialist partner is personally and meticulously verified. TravelTriangle also offers its customers the money safe guarantee – a service unique to the whole travel sector. The verification system conducts regular checks to monitor the safety of the customer’s money and ensure that travel agents provide the services as promised.