TravelTech Startup Teleport Raises 500K USD in Pre-Seed Round

TravelTech startup dedicated to simplifying the complex world of travel visas Teleport, has announced the successful closure of its Pre-Seed Round, securing a substantial USD 500,000 in equity funding, adding to the USD 100,000 grant it received from PeakXV (Sequoia) Spark program in early 2023. The funding will be instrumental in fuelling Teleport’s mission to ensure hassle-free travel visas and revolutionize the way people experience cross-border travel.

Esteemed investors, including entrepreneur Kunal Shah, Vidit Aatrey, Kishore Ganji, Appreciate Capital, Superb Capital, 888vc, and FAAD network, have rallied behind Teleport's far-reaching vision. This first and sole capital injection, will be strategically utilized to further develop Teleport’s cutting-edge technology, assemble a dynamic team, and drive effective distribution strategies.

Armed with a CA degree and a MBA from INSEAD, Founder and CEO, Nikita Dresswala, built conviction for the idea of her startup while crossing the border from Thailand to Cambodia to Vietnam on a three-week cycling journey across Southeast Asia. Her experiences during her cycling journey through Southeast Asia, coupled with her own struggles in obtaining visas, led her to identify a pain point that many travellers face: the complex and often frustrating visa application process. This realization laid the foundation for Teleport. Teleport empowers travellers with a streamlined visa application process that features automated flows, easy guided steps, and data-led decisions to maximize visa approval rates. Teleport is also the trusted choice for over 100 travel agents and travel companies, facilitating seamless visa processing for their businesses

Nikita Dresswala, Founder of Teleport, expressed her gratitude for the unwavering support of the investors, stating, “Travel visas have always been stressful and time consuming for international travellers. At Teleport, we are on a mission to simplify the process and make it anxiety free using technology.  We are super grateful to have a bunch of incredibly supportive investors and mentors onboard at Teleport, guiding us on our goal to make travel borderless.”

“For many Indians, the excitement of traveling abroad often gets overshadowed by tedious visa formalities. It's clear that amidst these bureaucratic challenges, there lies a significant opportunity to craft a service grounded in trust and understanding for Indian travellers. Nikita is a sharp operator, and just the person to lead this change. We are glad to have recognized her potential early on and are backing her and Teleport wholeheartedly” said Abhishek Agarwal - Partner at Appreciate Capital.

The larger vision is to make travel borderless for Indians. Teleport wants to ensure that every time you’re travelling to a new country, you travel like you belong to that place, and the starting point for that is removing anxiety around travel visas. Over a period of time, Teleport will solve for other travel infrastructure products including insurance, forex, and e-SIMs.

The platform targets to process 1,00,000 visas within the year 2023.