Saudi Arabia-based Investors and Accel Partners invest $7 million in HolidayMe.com

HolidayMe.com, the unique website offering value holiday deals and on-the-fly customized travel solutions to customers across the Middle East raised USD 7 million in Series A funding from a consortium of investors that includes Accel Partners and Saudi Arabia based F&C Overseas Investment. Existing investor Al Sanie Group also recommitted by participating in the round. 

HolidayMe.com is the fastest growing online travel agency (OTA) in the region. Geet Bhalla, Co-founder and CEO of HolidayMe said, “Our mission from the very beginning has been to offer customers unique and value-added products and services. We have made significant progress and are currently at a very important stage in terms of growth and expansion. We are very excited to have leading investors such as Accel Partners and F&C Overseas Investment with impressive track records join our board. This has provided great value to our regional business plans. The funding will be used to further scale up our technology, accelerate customer growth, make key strategic hires and expand regionally.”

Accel Partners, a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm has a long and highly successful track record of investing in start-ups and young companies in ecommerce, software, cloud, infrastructure and consumer services. Some of Accel’s early stage investments include companies such as Dropbox, Flipkart, Spotify, Kayak and HotelTonight in addition to a funding round in 2005 for Facebook. Investment in HolidayMe marks Accel’s entry into the Middle East, a region with immense untapped e-commerce potential especially in the GCC.

Prashanth Prakash, Partner from Accel Partners said, “The holiday market has continuously evolved towards increased localization and personalization. And the Middle Eastern customer is demanding it more than ever. HolidayMe’s technology focus on building a personalized customer experience platform is geared towards defining the future of how holiday packages will be bought and serviced in the Middle East”

Faisal Al Nassar from F&C Investments added, “The region has one of the highest per capita spend in holidays, and is need of a new age platform to meet their requirements. We are very excited to join HolidayMe in this journey towards fulfilling this gap and becoming the platform of choice for online holidays.”

HolidayMe was founded by Geet Bhalla and Digvijay Pratap in 2014. Following its launch in the Middle East in November 2014, HolidayMe secured a funding of USD 4 million from Al Sanie Group. 

HolidayMe enables users to design and book holiday packages, hotels, flights and sightseeing activities for destinations all over the world. Customers can choose from hundreds of curated itineraries created by experts for worldwide destinations and further personalize it to their preference.