goSTOPS raises USD 1 mn led by IAN, Yuj Ventures

KRS Jamwal, Uday Chatterjee and Mitesh Shah led this round at IAN, goSTOPS said in a statement.The freshly infused funds will be utilised to grow the companys supply over the next 12 months and invest in marketing and technology.

Backpacker hostel brand goSTOPS on Thursday said it has raised USD 1 million in its Pre-Series A round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Yuj Ventures, the private investing arm of the family office of Xander Group founder Sid Yog. The round also saw participation from the Chennai Angels, Chandigarh Angels, Lead Angels, Mumbai Angels Network, LetsVenture as well as goSTOPS' existing lead investor 1Crowd. KRS Jamwal, Uday Chatterjee, and Mitesh Shah led this round at IAN, goSTOPS said in a statement.

The freshly infused funds will be utilized to grow the company's supply over the next 12 months and invest in marketing and technology. The company had earlier raised funding in a round led by 1Crowd Fund, and from angel investors including Nitish Mittersain, the founder of Nazara Games.

Operating across 20 destinations in India, goSTOPS has hosted over 5,00,000 guests in its properties since its inception.

''We are thrilled to have great investors backing us in our quest to make youth travel accessible, safe, and fun. We saw a robust demand recovery from our young travelers post the first wave of the pandemic, and the same is happening today. This has helped us validate strong market-need fundamentals and business model resilience. This is also an opportune time for us to aggressively expand supply across the country to cater to the needs of the ever-increasing number of Gen Z travelers,'' stops CEO Pallavi Agarwal said.