Ugandan tourism-tech startup Tripesa raises pre-seed funding round
Summary
Ugandan tourism-tech startup Tripesa has raised a pre-seed round of funding as it seeks product-market fit ahead of continental expansion.Tripesa began life as an online travel marketplace called RoundBob, which was forced to close as the tourism industry ground to a halt due to COVID-19. From the ashes, however emerged Tripesa, which is building infrastructure and logistics to help companies in the African tourism and experiences space do business online at a lower cost.With Tripesa, a business will get online, sell online, accept payments and manage basic operations, said David Gonahasa, who co-founded the startup alongside Thomas Karugaba and Raymond Byaruhanga.Through the platform as a service solution, businesses can build no-code websites, itineraries, and client proposals, access a multi-currency payment platform to allow them accept digital payments online including cards and mobile money, and lastly manage basic business operations including bookings and marketing. With continuous development a business using Tripesa will be able to run most elements of their business in one place.The startup has been mostly bootstrapped, though Eric Osiakwan is an angel investor, but in June secured an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from Future Africa, Consonance Investment Managers and LTNT Investments. The tourism industry earns Africa US$35 billion annually, and employs over 24 million people, with operations cutting across multiple sub-sectors like tour operators, travel agencies, tour guides, transport companies, souvenirs and trinkets, museums, events, F&B and many others.Unfortunately, it is difficult for many of these companies to do business online. Tripesa is building a consolidated solution to fix this at a very low cost, said Gonahasa.Tripesa makes money from subscriptions, priced at US$20 per user per month or US$180 per user per year.This includes a website, management dashboard, domain name, four free email addresses, and build support.