New Delhi, July 22 -- Early-stage investors Eximius Ventures, Anicut Capital and Sprint, who came right ahead of venture capital backer Info Edge Ventures on the cap table of travel-tech startup 30 Sundays three years ago, have gained a juicy valuation mark-up as the company snagged its Series A cheque this week.
Bessemer Venture Partners led the Rs 61-crore ($6.7 million) funding round with participation of at least two existing backers, Eximius and Naukri parent's VC fund Info Edge Ventures.
Eximius, an early-stage VC firm founded by Pearl Agarwal that has floated its second fund, and Anicut, which provides flexible capital to early-stage ventures, first invested in 30 Sundays in mid-2023 along with Salil Chakrabarty Innovation Fund, an angel fund that operates under the banner of Sprint.
Eximius and Anicut brought in around Rs 75 lakh each while Sprint came with Rs 30 lakh, VCCircle has gathered. Some angel investors, too, participated in that round.
Later the same year, Info Edge Ventures joined the cap table at 2.5x valuation. It bet Rs 4.4 crore in a deal that valued 30 Sundays at Rs 40 crore, post money, as per VCCircle estimates.
The latest funding round has pegged the startup's post-money valuation at about Rs 225 crore, or around Rs 164 crore pre-money.
This implies that Eximius, Anicut and Sprint have got a 10x mark-up on their initial investment, translating into unrealised annualised returns of around 115%. The blended upside for Eximius would be a tad lower given that it has participated again now.
Similarly, Info Edge has got a 4x upside on its original investment but this would be a shade lower since it has reupped in the latest round.
When 30 Sundays raised its pre-seed money, the company was called Brance and operated as an AI-powered conversational sales platform to automate lead generation, engagement, and follow-ups for corporate enterprise.
Currently, 30 Sundays operates an AI-native, full-stack journey planner, owning planning across the discovery and booking stages while providing an on-trip concierge. It says it has profitably scaled to an annualised gross booking value run-rate of approximately Rs 200 crore from just four destinations (Indonesia's Bali, Vietnam, Maldives and Thailand).
The company was founded by Kshitij Chaudhary, who is also its CEO, and Anuj Punjani, who is its CTO, with a core team drawn from Flipkart, Jabong, OYO, Travel Triangle, and Shuttl.
"Planning a holiday has too long meant static PDFs, endless follow-ups, and mark-ups you discover only later. We built 30 Sundays to make travel honest and effortless. Every customer gets a trip designed around them, sees exactly what they're paying for, and has a guide in their pocket the moment they land," said Chaudhary.
The company targets couples as the core target group with an eye on the recreational travel market.
It plans to use the capital to strengthen its product, tech, and AI teams, invest in brand building and marketing to grow durable, organic demand, and expand into new geographies and customer segments.
It recently added New Zealand and Mauritius to its offering, and is preparing to open Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Philippines as a market for its users.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.