Travel Boutique Online (TBO), an Indian B2B player backed by South Africa's Naspers, has bought a stake in campsite aggregator Deyor Camps.
Naspers was involved in a $250 million funding round for India's Ibibo Group earlier this year, one of the biggest rounds ever seen in the Indian market. Chinese internet giant Tencent was also involved.
The deal comes via Nasper-backed Travel Tek. TBO is a wholesaler of air and hotels to online and offline agents and works with 19,000 agents in India.
Deyor Camps aggregates campsites under the Deyor brand in the same way that the online branded hotel aggregators are doing with budget accommodation. Deyor has 100 campsites in India on its books and is aiming to have 300 in place by the end of the year. It will integrate with TBO, opening up its inventory to TBO-connected agencies and allowing both business to cross-sell to each others' client base.
Reports of the deal, which has been confirmed via Deyor's official Facebook page, say that Deyor has racked up 10,000 customers since it launched at the end of March this year. It is also looking to expand the concept into other Asian markets.
Alternative accommodation is increasingly prevalent in India. Businesses such as Stayzilla fly the flag for homestays, guest houses, resorts, B&B’s, jungle lodges and boat houses. At the time of its $15 million funding round last year it said this segment of the market was seven times bigger than traditional hotels.
Meanwhile, Naspers offered an update on the performance of Ibibo Group during its financial for the year to end-March. Ibibo is outperforming its nearest competitor across traditional hotels, air and bus ticketing. Ibibo's gross bookings in dollar terms were 55% ahead year-on-year compared with its nearest competitor - unnamed - which was 12% up.
Related reading from Tnooz:
Stayzilla belatedly confirms another $13 million (May 2016)
Airbnb continues to build presence in India (April 2016)
Google India sees big hike in searches for branded budget hotels (April 2016)