This year marks the third anniversary of ShareTrip, the country’s largest and most successful online travel agency (OTA). To commemorate its third anniversary, the firm hosted a celebration event called ShareTrip Night 2022, which was attended by its partners and stakeholders.
On August 7, the event was held at the Hotel Sheraton Dhaka and was attended by a significant number of industry insiders, stakeholders, overseas delegates, and ShareTrip partners. The event’s Chief Guest was Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP, Statement Minister, ICT Division, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. As a special guest, Sami Ahmed, Managing Director of Startup Bangladesh Limited, also attended.
ShareTrip Announces New Investment from Startup Bangladesh and Celebrates 3rd Anniversary
Throughout the event, ShareTrip made a number of announcements, shared its accomplishments from the previous three years and its future goals, presented awards to a large number of market participants in the travel and tourism sector, and disclosed its most recent funding round from Startup Bangladesh Limited, a venture capital fund backed by the Bangladeshi government. Let’s look at the main events that made up the event.
Honoring industry partners: One of the event’s main attractions was honoring different business partners. The company stated in a news release that this was the first instance in the travel industry when an agency honored its suppliers and business partners.
The appreciation and award program recognized the efforts of the partners in the following categories: leading campaign, transaction, payment gateway, commercial, and agent, among others. Exemplary performing airlines from different regions; people’s choice airlines from different regions; hotels in Bangladesh. A three-day poll with more than 10,000 replies led to the corporation announcing a people’s choice award for the aviation and hotel sectors.
Sadia Haque, Co-founder, and CEO of ShareTrip,
“We dedicate the night to the beautiful relationships we have nurtured together with our partners over our journey of three years. Without your kind support and cooperation, our path would have been more challenging. Future projections show that the online market could grow more than 50%t in the next 3 years, and for ShareTrip the journey will be less of a challenge because of the Investment from Startup Bangladesh Ltd. “
She also adds,
“This investment is not only a financial one but rather a strategic one, to strengthen the credibility and progression of the OTAs in the coming days. On behalf of the ShareTrip family, we are thankful to SBL for choosing to invest in us”,
Startup Bangladesh Limited invests in ShareTrip: ShareTrip and Startup Bangladesh Limited also made an investment announcement during the occasion. According to the release, Startup Bangladesh Limited invested in ShareTrip at a $50 million value, marking the first investment of the government-backed venture capital fund in a local travel-tech business.
Sami Ahmed, Managing Director, Startup Bangladesh Limited stated,
“This is the first time Startup Bangladesh Limited is investing in the travel industry and we are very happy that ShareTrip is our first venture. Startup Bangladesh aims to support homegrown startups to grow and reach heights that generate higher standards for more Foreign Investment. The local startup ecosystem is greatly influenced by prospective ventures like ShareTrip, where passion and professionalism, coming together, can provide a single organization with the strength to give its whole industry a significant push forward.
He also added,
“ShareTrip has been an outstanding example of how to turn a hopeful idea into a successful business. I wish them all the success and congratulate them on the investment from Startup Bangladesh. all the best to the organization and its partners”,
One of the first companies in Bangladesh to enter the online travel agency market three years ago was ShareTrip. The business has expanded tremendously in a short amount of time. According to the business, it has helped 500,000 consumers from all around the nation. On its B2B platform, 5000 offline agents are active. Through A2i Digital Centers spread out around the nation, it collaborates with a few thousand offline agents.
ShareTrip claims to see enormous prospects in the Bangladeshi market for internet travel services and seeks to make travel services available even in the most isolated regions of the nation. ShareTrip has introduced a lengthy range of interesting features over the past three years that have made travel services available and enjoyable for a large number of individuals.
The business has created a platform that gives clients affordable pricing on travel services and has made it easy for users to purchase travel services including tickets, hotels, and other pertinent travel services. The business claims it is only at the beginning and now wants to build on its achievements from the previous three years, extend its offerings, and keep innovating and expanding.