Onetwotrip.com, a Russian air ticket booking site launched less than 18 months ago, announced last week that it has received a $16 million capital injection from international venture fund Atomico. The funding comes as a complement to the $9 million invested last month by Phenomen Ventures, a fund established earlier this year by Russian tech investment veteran and Onetwotrip chairman Dmitry Falkovich.
The startup declined to disclose the details of the deal, but its PR Director Anastasia Taratina told East-West Digital News that the valuation was “much higher” than the $70 million estimate of Russian business daily Kommersant.
With Onetwotrip’s sales already reaching $36 million per month (with over 100,000 tickets sold), Taratina forecasts a turnover of $400 or $450 million this year. This would place the startup in the same order of magnitude as this segment’s current market leader, Anywayanyday.com, and would rank it among Russia’s top e-commerce properties.
Onetwotrip claims to have reached “an incredible 35% share of the Russian market.” Taratina could not share with EWDN the private MIDT data that would confirm this assertion, but she mentioned technology, smart marketing, and a strong team, as the main factors behind Onetwotrip’s success.
Top Russian online booking services by turnover in 2011. (Source: EWDN’s research on Russian e-commerce.)
OneTwoTrip’s technology offers the following features, according to Taratina:
- The fastest search of flight options and the best prices with a patented system, named Tariff Match, that helps to save customers about 20% off the original ticket price;
- A highly intelligent search system that indicates the shortest and most reliable routes according to customer specifications;
- An interface that allows customers to optimize their flight in seconds;
- Statistics of the flight delays for every particular destination/airline;
- Information on airplane model and age as well as distances between the seats.
The site tallies the information to offer a rating of each flight by each airline. Everything counts, from flight delay stats to passengers’ comfort ratings. “[That’s] a world first,” Taratina claims.
Onetwotrip also emphasizes savings. “We are the only online air ticket booking agency in Russia that allows customers to pay the airline directly, which saves around 2% of the price on acquisition costs,” while Onetwotrip’s Tariff Match system has so far “helped our clients save more than $1 million in excess [costs].”
Should a ticket be booked for a travel date in the very near future, Onetwotrip’s clients may enjoy up to a 20% discount compared to the price they could be obtain directly form an airline or from an online or offline travel agency.
Last but not least, Onetwotrip offers bonuses to its users. No less than €5.9 million have been distributed to its customers so far.
“With a small and dynamic group of people, [Onetwotrip’s founder] Petr Kutis has focused on creating the most efficient, elegant and innovative travel service not only in Russia, but anywhere in the world,” Atomico stated.
According to Phenomen Ventures, online air ticket sales could reach $3 billion this year – up 70% from 2011 – or almost a quarter of the total Russian online retail market.
- RUSSIAN E-COMMERCE REPORT 2012 – The total volume of Russian online retail reached 310 billion rubles, a little more than $10 billion, in 2011, up 25% at least from the previous year. EWDN has published an in-depth research on Russian e-commerce, in which several players of the online travel market took part. To receive free insights or to order the full version, please contact us at [email protected].
