Mihuru lets people book their flights and holiday packages by paying a small deposit upfront; the balance can be paid in instalments
Mihuru team with Founder Shruti Mehrotra (L)
Shruti Mehrotra spent the early years of her life growing up in Fiji Islands, before moving back to her home country. In India, given the nature of her father’s job, she had to move around every few years, along with her parents. This ignited a passion for travel in her, and she soon became an avid traveller.
In her childhood years, travelling — especially by air — was considered a luxury in India that only the affluent class could afford. But as the country developed and the market began to open up, travelling became a way of life for many.
“Until now, traveling was considered a luxury,” she tells me. “It has changed for the better now. Traveling is not a luxury any more; it’s now a way of life for many. As we Indians have always been an aspirational bunch, travelling — that too by air — has become more ubiquitous.”
Having said that, there is still a section of people in India, for whom air travel still remains an unaffordable dream. And Mehrotra and her team at Mihuru want this to be a thing of past.
Mihuru — a combination of Mi (Spanish word for ‘my’) and Uhuru (Swahili word for ‘freedom’) — is an online platform that lets people book their flights and holiday packages by paying a small deposit upfront. The balance payments can be paid off over a period of time, prior to their trip.
“Mihuru’s mission is to make flying possible for the masses,” says Mehrotra. “From saving up to 40 per cent on airfare to protecting you from hidden costs while travelling, we are here to help you travel right.”
For instance, if you plan to fly from Mumbai to Bangkok in June, the airfare today will be INR 19,500 (US$283) per person. Instead of having to cough up the entire amount at the time of booking, you can now pay only INR 4,100 at the time of booking. The balance can be paid in three instalments (INR 5,500 each), prior to your flight in June.
“This makes the outflow manageable and places less financial stress in one particular month. It also saves you from paying an extra INR 4,000-6,000 (US$58-87) per person, had you booked closer to the date of journey. Imagine everything else you could do with that money instead of wasting it on airfare just because you were too lazy to plan ahead!” she says.
To avail this facility, you need to complete a simple sign-up process, based on which you are provided a booking sanction. You can then use this sanctioned amount to book your flights, hotels, and holiday packages. You need to pay off all instalments as per your payment plan, prior to your travel date. You will get access to your confirmed flights, hotel or holiday package only after you have made the full payments.
“We also advise customers on when to vacations. We take into account trending destinations, lead time to travel (and thereby ability to pay off instalments), best time to book flights, alternatives available, etc. while making this recommendation,” explains Mehrotra, who holds an MBA Degree from the Kellogg School of Management in the US.
“All of this is available on Mihuru, without requiring the customer to hop, skip and jump across multiple websites looking for the best deals. Additionally, our membership programme Mihuru Golden Circle provides you with access to exclusive discounts and preview of new products before anybody else gets,” she explains.
Previous years
Prior to founding Mihuru, Mehrotra worked in the startup investments space. She has close to 15 years of active working experience with startups in growth and early-stage investing across India, the US and Southeast Asia.
Also Read: How fintech startup LendMN saves 30K salaried employees from loan sharks in Mongolia
During those years, she primarily took care of investments in consumption-led opportunities. This experience made her realise that consumption patterns of Indian millennials are rapidly evolving towards spending on experiences, especially travel, with the prevalence of social media.
“Then in 2016, the Indian government launched the UDAN regional connectivity scheme. UDAN is an acronym that means ‘let the common citizen of the country fly’ to make traveling by flight affordable for the masses within the country and internationally,” she adds.
“I come from a privileged family background, where the dinner conversations at home always revolved around financial services — be it India’s financial inclusion challenges, driving adoption of push products like insurance, or mis-selling due to low financial literacy. This gave me exposure to the financial world early on,” she adds. “Mihuru is a culmination of all these life experiences.
Opportunities
Mihuru sees a huge opportunity in India. According to Mehrotra, the millennials and Gen Zs of today account for 66 per cent of all trips in India, and will save, borrow and take up a side job to be able to travel. “To quote a recent Expedia report, if Indian millennials were given INR 10 lakh (US$14,500), 81 per cent of them would spend half or more on leisure travel. So strong is the desire for travel.”
“And contrary to the common perception that millennials are laidback, it turns out the younger generation are in fact methodical organisers, who prefer time in hand to plan an efficient holiday. They seek to optimise the budget they have, so they can get their perfect ‘dream’ holiday. This behaviour fits in perfectly with Mihuru’s product,” she boasts.
In addition to this, there is a huge latent demand that’s being driven by the UDAN initiative to make traveling by flight affordable for the masses within the country and internationally. “Changes are happening around us. People who either historically couldn’t afford to travel by flights or simply didn’t have access to airports are now traveling by flights. Almost 25 per cent of flyers in 2017 were first time flyers and these numbers are only going to increase,” she says confidently.
“In 2018, for the first time ever, the number of people flying by flights overtook the number of people traveling by air-conditioned trains. And that’s a very encouraging sign. Indian airports are expected to see 300 million passengers per year by 2022 (up from 150 million in 2018) and we are here right on time to join this ride,” she goes on.
Mihuru has partnered with a handful of companies, including travel aggregator Skyscanner to give customers access to flights across 1,200-plus online booking agents. It also has a network of travel agents and startups to book the customer’s holiday packages and hotels.
For insurance service, Mihuru has joined hands with insuretech startup Arvi to offer flight cancellation and delay protection to customers. Arvi provides you a refund if you cancel your flight for any reason.
“As for foreign exchange, we have a partnership with EbixCash to provide our customers the best exchange rates and doorstep delivery of foreign exchange and prepaid forex cards across India,” Mehrotra notes.
Revenue streams
The company generates revenues from the service charge paid by the end customers. This charge varies depending on the customer profile, destination, lead time to travel, among others. Mihuru also earns commissions from its travel partners.
Currently, the startup only employs five people.
According to Mehrotra, investing — especially in the early stages of startups — is very rewarding; you get to meet some amazing people and hear their stories. You have a ringside seat of an exciting journey in the entrepreneur’s and company’s life. And you have the ability to influence direction.
“But the flip side is that most good companies will get funded, irrespective of whether or not you personally exist as an investor,” she adds. “On the other hand, when you build a startup, you are building something that’s never been done before. You see a painful problem that you are passionate about solving. And the way you solve that problem is very unique to your individual experiences and insights. Startups are like fingerprints — no two are the same,” she observes.
Also Read: Gobi Partners names ex-Sony Chairman as advisor for Japan
Drawing a sports analogy, she says that founders are athletes on the playing field: operators with a strong strategic sense. The best of them seek advice and deliver great results. Investors are coaches: the best know how to give advice and nurture talent, and they know to not try to run the business.
Don’t get carried away by the hype
In her view, a significant part of building a startup is the team’s network. Having worked on the other side of the table has given her the privileged access she could have otherwise had to hustle more for.
“That aside, I’ve evaluated and worked with startups across India, Southeast Asia and the US. That brought two important learnings. First, don’t get carried away by the hype. I’ve seen enough and more startups adjust an otherwise sound business plan only because of a hype in the market that dies out sooner or later. I’ve seen a lot of investors also fall for these hypes and many times even push their investee companies in that direction,” she warns. “There is a fine line between being confident about your business, market and customers and being ignorant to the need to adapt. And that’s a line you need to be very conscious of.”
“Second, every startup has an investor that’s right for them. I cannot underscore how important it is to find the right partnership – for both, the startup and the investor. It could mean the difference between success and failure,” she signs off.
The post Fintech startup Mihuru is on a mission to make flying affordable for Indians appeared first on e27.