Triip, a Saigon-based travel platform, is the latest Vietnamese startup to receive international funding after the company announced last week it had secured US$500,000 in seed funding from Shanghai’s Gobi Partners.
The company, which works with over 9,000 Triip creators, offers crowdsourced tours in 86 countries (up from 10 countries in December 2014).
Still, despite the company's success, it hasn’t been an easy road for Triip, which is led by a husband-and-wife team Hai Ho and Ha Lam.
“We did not have enough cash to build a real team to push for growth. After bootstrapping for more than a year, we decided to go all-in and sold our house. It was a hard decision as we already had two kids back then,” Hai told Tech in Asia.
Employing the Airbnb model, the service allows anyone to create their own tours and market them to travelers, from homestays in the Mekong Delta and treks through Machu Picchu to a tour of the Harvard campus given by one of the Ivy League school’s professors. All guides are vetted and must provide personal documents in order to join the site.
“The authenticity of our local experience is unmatched. Our Triip creators deliver their experiences from their heart, not for profit. They already have their own day jobs, so they are not commission-driven like many traditional tour guides. In this way, we believe travelers can have a more authentic and enjoyable experience,” Ha told the tech website. “We are changing the way people travel worldwide, creating jobs for locals and helping cities preserve local cultures. In doing so, Triip is creating tangible benefits for tour guides, travelers and local governments”.
You can check out Triip's available tours on their website.
