Treebo cofounder Rahul Chaudhary joins VC fund Matrix Partners

Rahul Chaudhary, the cofounder of budget hospitality chain Treebo Hotels, has joined venture capital fund Matrix Partners India.

The VC fund is an early investor in ride-hailing and electric vehicles firm Ola, digital payments provider Razorpay, short-video player Dailyhunt, among others.

As venture partner at Matrix India, Chaudhary will look at early-stage investments, focussing on seed to Series A startups.


“Let's see what this VC thing is all about then. Excited to be joining the team at Matrix Partners. Hoping to be the kind of investor I've respected as a founder - honest, empathetic and all-in,” Chaudhary said on microblogging platform Twitter.


In June last year, Chaudhary assumed an advisory role at the budget hotel aggregator he had cofounded along with Sidharth Gupta and Kadam Jeet Jain in 2015. He continues to be a board member at Treebo Hotels.

Matrix Partners India is an early backer of Treebo Hotels and has invested in the company across several rounds starting 2015.

Bennett Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL), which publishes The Economic Times, is also an investor in Treebo Hotels.

In June 2021, Treebo had raised $16 million led by French hospitality major, Accor. The investment by Accor was part of a broader partnership under which Treebo would deploy its hotel management software at various Accor hotels worldwide.

Treebo’s biggest competitor is SoftBank-backed Oyo, which has announced plans to go public.

ET had reported on June 21, last year that Matrix Partners is expected to raise a $450 million India fund.

This is the VC firm’s fourth India-dedicated fund through which it will back startups in India and South Asian markets, and it comes at a time when peers including Accel, Sequoia India, and Elevation Capital have all announced their latest funds.

Matrix previously raised a $300 million fund in 2019.