RailYatri.in to double headcount; eyes 2 million userbase

NEW DELHI: Multi-modal train travel app RailYatri.in is looking at doubling its headcount to 100 people in the next 6-8 months as it drives usage with features like live train status, platform locator and hospital finder.

The Helion Venture Partners-backed app also expects to cross the 2 million monthly userbase by the end of the ongoing fiscal.

"We have seen a tremendous growth in usage as people are using the app for their train journeys. We follow a crowd-sourcing model to get the information that we need and that is backed by strong technology support. In the next 6-8 months, we are looking at doubling our headcount from 50 now," RailYatri.in co-founder and CEO Manish Rathi told.

He added that the hiring will be done across areas like technology, sales and content/intelligence.

"We are constantly working on features to ensure that the train journey is made as relaxed as possible. Our medical emergency feature that we are launching now enables users to check for vital information regarding medical facilities in the vicinity of their location," he said.

The feature currently covers about 4,000 stations and will be expanded to 6,000 soon.

The feature will provide a list of healthcare facilities at the upcoming stations. This will include hospital names, direction from station, contact numbers of hospitals and ambulance services that one may require during an emergency.

"Healthcare has been a longstanding problem for travellers. Thousands of medical emergencies arise during train journeys in India yet no one has really thought about solving the problem. We want to address this issue," Rathi said.

Co-founded by Rathi, Kapil Raizada and Sachin Saxena in 2014, RailYatri mobile app provides a wide range of crowd-sourced information related to train travel in India.

In June last year, it had raised funds, led by Helion Venture Partners along with Omidyar Network and existing investors Blume Ventures and Ujama. It did not disclose the sum it has raised.

Till date, it has raised about USD 3 million.