In Startup50 2016: For actively serving over 3.1 million active users, as it marches towards its mission of enhancing the user experience for train travellers in India.

Founders: Manish Rathi, Kapil Raizada & Sachin Saxena

RailYatri is a deep-analytics and content-centric platform, leveraging crowd-sourcing data to help Indian users take smarter travel decisions. It currently has 3.1 million monthly active users and 4.5 million app installs.

The company has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors such as Ujama Ventures, Blume Ventures, Helion Ventures, Omidyar Network and Nandan Nilekani.

A Yard Of Difference

While current models (travel platforms) only differentiate on ticket prices and comparisons, RailYatri counts its unique differentiator as a platform that helps add value throughout the travel life-cycle.

To explain better, the company offers three technologies; the Rail Radar, which tracks train locations by using crowd-sourced mobile phone GPS of train travellers, the Integrated Seat Search, which uses data analytics to help wait-listed travellers select the best combination of (train+date+class+from+to+quota) for seats to get confirmed, and RailWisdom, which maps station amenities, including medical facilities and connect to a user’s travel context.

Being a mass market product targeting a million travellers across the country, the company is now in the process of enabling small businesses in over 80 small cities to reach out to train travellers for fulfilling other travel needs such as on-train meals delivery, travel packages and other services.

3.1 million

(Monthly active users of the app)

4.5 million

(Number of app installs so far)

Key Innovations

Rail Radar, RailWisdom, Integrated Seat Search