Tripesa, Ugandan Tourism-tech Startup Secures Pre-seed Funding Round

Before expanding across the continent, the Ugandan firm Tripesa is focusing on finding the right product-market fit.

Tripesa was once known as RoundBob, an online travel marketplace that had to shut down as a result of COVID-19, which paralyzed the travel and tourism sector. However, Tripesa, which is developing infrastructure and logistics to support businesses in the African tourism and experiences market conduct online commerce at a lesser cost, rose from the ashes.

Tripesa was founded by Thomas Karugaba, Raymond Byaruhanga, and David Gonahasa. According to David Gonahasa, who also served as a co-founder, “With Tripesa, a business will come online, sell online, accept payments, and manage basic operations.”

Businesses can create no-code websites, itineraries, and client proposals using the platform as a service solution. They can also access a multi-currency payment platform to accept digital payments online, including credit cards and mobile money, and manage fundamental business functions like reservations and marketing. A company adopting Tripesa will be able to manage the majority of its business operations in one location with continued development.

Although Eric Osiakwan is an angel investor, the firm has largely been self-funded. However, in June, Future Africa, Consonance Investment Managers, and LTNT Investments provided an unknown sum of pre-seed money. According to Gonahasa, the money would be used to help Tripesa find its product-market fit.

In Uganda and Kenya, Tripesa is presently attempting to achieve product-market fit. Due to the high volume of cross-border travel between Kenya and Uganda, as well as the need to share information and funds, these two countries were chosen as test markets for cross-border functionality. Tripesa plans to expand throughout the African continent once it has found product-market fit, he said.

Over 260 mostly small businesses in Uganda and Kenya have joined up for Tripesa as of today, and the platform is still growing every day, with a focus on the website construction tool.

Larger firms have expressed interest in the CRM and business automation features, according to Gonahasa.

We think that at this stage of the business, we are learning from these few customers and continuously conversing with our users in an effort to develop a product that actually works for the market.

This market has a considerable size. Over 24 million people are employed in the tourism sector, which generates US$35 billion yearly and includes businesses in a number of sub-sectors including tour operators, travel agencies, tour guides, transportation firms, souvenir shops, museums, events, F&B, and others.

“Unfortunately, many of these businesses find it challenging to conduct business online. The majority of businesses still use the DM-to-book or call-to-book models, which are expensive to construct and maintain, difficult to distribute and manage product inventory across numerous marketplaces, and expensive to integrate payment systems. Additionally, virtually little CRM activity, bookings management, and other tasks are automated. Tripesa is developing a comprehensive remedy to address this at a very minimal cost, according to Gonahasa.

Subscriptions, which cost $20 per user per month or $80 per user per year, are how Tripesa generates revenue.

This consists of a website, dashboard for management, domain name, four free email accounts, and build support. This costs a fraction of what it would to create an effective website. According to Gonahasa, additional earnings are produced by lead generation, marketing assistance, management of payouts and installment payments, and payment processing.