TripGain
Curating and Simplifying Travel and Expense Management for Business Travellers and Corporates
People have demonstrated a definite preference for searching for and booking their travel online ever since the trend of online travel reservations emerged. People’s lives are now more comfortable and secure in terms of trip planning thanks to the disruption of the traditional travel business.
With their different approaches to business, several companies worldwide have attempted over the years to provide travellers with excellent services. But among very few successful businesses, TripGain has set a new benchmark for corporate and business travellers in better managing their travel and getting savings at every stage. Streamlining the topsy-turvy process of bookings [flights, hotels, buses, trains, cabs, visas, and forex] and helping you streamline your travel and expense management on a single platform is TripGain, a well-conceived venture of Sudheer Reddy Repala and Rangaprasad Basasheshi.
Incorporated in 2015, TripGain is India’s first travel marketplace for business travellers and corporates with an integrated Expense management system. They craft products that help corporate and business travellers better plan their trips and save significantly at every turn.
Envisioned to revolutionise the way people manage their business travel, TripGain digitises the entire travel and expense flow of a corporate, starting with integrating their HRMS system to pull in profiles and configure policies on the system, raising trip requests and obtaining approvals, performing live booking and ticketing of travel services, queuing them to Finance for claims and advance processing, and then pushing claims and invoices to vendor management and accounting systems in real-time.
The Inspiration Behind the Incorporation
Having gone through multiple RFPs from various corporates in the travel and expense space, Sudheer and Rangaprasad understood the pain points faced by employees who wanted to make seamless, last-minute bookings of their choice, travel administrators who needed to respond promptly with the best offers for the employee, and the finance team who was attempting to process the claims on time and reimburse the employee. With policies in place and enforced, the platform enables employees to make their own reservations at times that work best for them.
Industry Evolutions Over the Years
The corporate travel segment was/is in offline mode with in-house travel admins and implants from travel agents. Approvals were taken on emails and then options are sent by travel admins/implants. Corporate entities have introduced travel request forms as a first step towards digitization. Employees must complete these forms, which are then submitted for permission.
After acceptance, the request is sent to travel administrators or implements, who then provide possibilities. There are numerous problems with this practice as well, including last-minute travel needs, delays in sending selections, and price increases for each additional minute of delay.
Additionally, expense reimbursement is an extensive procedure that requires the employee to manually enter charges without tying trips to expenses. It is time for businesses to fully digitise their travel and expense flow, and a unified solution as a whole would add a lot of value—from determining the precise cost of trips to setting budgets—to the process. Corporate entities can now see travel expenditures in real-time by cost center and department.
TripGain’s Game Plan to Tackle the Key Challenges
The primary obstacle in this market is the credit line given to corporations for their travel expenditures. To tackle this issue, TripGain has partnered with numerous banks to offer business cards to corporations. These banks offer CTA/BTA cards, which give corporations 45 days of credit and pay the travel agent in real-time or T+2. In order to support the business with bill discounting, they have also partnered with a number of lending fintechs which is completely transforming the landscape.
The Unique Selling Point: Making Your Firm Stands Out
Tech-first approach with deep travel domain expertise is a lethal combination to address the growing needs of enterprises. Their feature-rich product itself is a differentiator.
A mention of a few features:
• Travel Policy Compliance
• Approval Workflows
• GST Compliant Invoices
• Field Force Management
• Guest house Management system
• MIS and Analytics
• Carbon footprint numbers
• Traveler support round the clock
• An easy-to-use mobile app and website for booking and managing everything.
Influence of Technology
With increasing human resource costs and growing travel budgets, it has become necessary for corporates to digitize the flows of travel, approval system, booking process, reconciliation process, and processing of claims. Their primary goals are usability (ease of use) and cost-effectiveness.
TripGain is developing a cutting-edge AI-based travel recommendation engine to reduce the time required for trip planning from 15 to 30 minutes to under 6 seconds. Another feature that is worth mentioning is automatic bill scanning, which helps enter all the bill details automatically without a need for manual entry.
Milestones & Future Plans in a Glance
Thriving on its extensive experience in the industry, TripGain has been introducing groundbreaking projects since its beginnings. The effort has paid off, as the company has expanded significantly, adding more than 3 lakh users and 300+ customers. With more than 400 corporate clients, the company, which has its headquarters in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, TripGain plans to grow its reach throughout the Middle East, Singapore, the USA, Canada, and the UK.
Dynamic Leadership
Sudheer Reddy R – Co-Founder and Director
Sudheer Reddy, a technology enthusiast and innovator at heart, he is the brain behind TripGain. Sudheer is an enthusiast and passionate business leader who demonstrates his leadership skills at TripGain by fostering smart sales partnerships and boosting overall profitability.
He founded TripGain with a particular focus on the business traveler segment as part of his vision and strategy to change the landscape of the travel industry. In academic Banton, he is a Top 100 IT NASSCOM innovator, an MIT Sloan alumnus, and an IIIT grad.
Ranga Prasad – Co-Founder and Director
Another leading man, Ranga Prasad is an industry veteran with years of expertise. His experience working with travel startups, coming from a background in business development, marketing, and technical sales, has given him significant insights into the travel industry.
Along with his contribution in a pre-sales and implementation capacity, he adds solid commercial judgment and international expertise to the table. Ranga oversees lead conversions, key stakeholder management, operations, and overall profitability at TripGain. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from JNT University in Hyderabad, a Masters in Information Technology from IIIT Bangalore, and an MBA from IIM Kozhikode.
Words of Wisdom to the Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs aspiring to establish themselves in the travel industry should be focused on adopting the newest technologies while also attempting to be as economical as possible.
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