Copyright indiatimes
Business-to-business (B2B) visa processing startup StampMyVisa has raised Rs 4 crore in a funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures.The Mumbai-based company plans to use the fresh capital for future growth, marketing, and to support its acquisition of travel-tech startup Teleport. The company had acquired the Kunal Shah-backed Teleport in August, as reported by ET.“With the help of AI, visa documentation can be virtually made error-free, thus bringing down the chances of rejection considerably. As we continue to improve our offerings, we are also going to enter GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries,” said Rahul Borude, chief executive officer of StampMyVisa, in a statement.Founded in 2017 by Borude, Pravin Wadekar, and Amey Anekar, the AI-led platform enables travel agents, corporates, OTAs (online travel agencies) and the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) segment to process visas for over 80 countries.The company claims to have processed more than 75,000 visas in the last six months. It has also launched two premium product lines, SMV Insure and SMV Global. SMV Insure offers trip protection covers for visa rejections, while SMV Global is an e-sim product that claims to be 40% cheaper than the international roaming service offered by telecom providers.The company has so far raised close to Rs 6.6 crore in funding, as per market intelligence platform Tracxn. “Visa processing is a highly stressful process and over 35% of rejections are due to human error,” said Anil Joshi, managing partner of Unicorn India Ventures. “The paperwork, timelines and dependencies on manual processes have many a time played spoilsport in the travel planning of professionals, students and even leisure travellers. SMV understands this problem and with an intelligent use of AI is streamlining the entire process.”The company plans to build fintech infra with payment solutions and embedded credit over the next 12-18 months.
