Online travel booking portal YatraGenie eyes 100 more cities by 2015 end YatraGenie is emerging as one of the largest taxi aggregators covering smallest to the biggest cities in South India.

With increasing internet and smartphone penetration, consumers are now turning towards online portals to take advantage of ease of booking tickets in discounted prices. According to Octane Research, 95 per cent of consumers today search online before making a travel purchase; 41 per cent of consumers make a purchase after receiving a promotional discount offer over a mail; and 25 percent of consumers make a purchase after receiving an offer over SMS.

The research further indicates that majority of consumers are more comfortable with online ticket booking rather than personally going and buying it. Sensing this opportunity, many start-ups are coming up in online ticketing booking space, where they not only appreciated by consumer but are also receiving the huge interest from investors.

One such Bengaluru-based start-up YatraGenie.com has recently announced to secure an undisclosed amount in Series A round of funding from Ash Bhardwaj, a Silicon Valley based BIZ Experiences and investor. The start-up is an online travel ticketing portal for bus and cab booking. The venture plans to utilise this fund towards its expansion and increasing it market base in Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Further, Bhardwaj will be also joining YatraGenie as a board member.

Commenting on the same lines, Bhardwaj said, "The online taxi service market has seen robust growth over the last few years. In the coming years, there will be a significant increase in the demand for quality taxi services. I am delighted to be a part of the YatraGenie team and look forward to contributing to the growth of the company."

Founded in March 2015 by Renil Komitla, YatraGenie, is owned and operated by Paxterra Software Solutions Private Limited. Paxterra Solutions was started in August 2008 as a boutique organisation with value added services for telecom and semiconductor industry. The company offers its services in the sectors like engineering, automation, support, systems integration, strategic services, R&D, software services, SaaS and professional services.

Yatragenie is also a government-licensed radio taxi and cabs operators, which has introduced taxi rental services across all the districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The venture poised to expand its services into airlines, hotels and logistics management by end of the fiscal year 2015-16. Currently operational across 21 cities in Andhra Pradesh and 10 cities in Telangana, YatraGenie aims to set up its operations in 100 urban communities and towns before the end of 2015.