“How a Noida Startup Turned Train Waiting Rooms into Real-Time Journeys”
Overview
RailYatri is India’s travel-tech company that began with a simple goal: help train-travellers know exactly where their train is, and then expanded into inter-city bus travel, ticketing, meal-orders and broader mobility.
Over the years it has evolved from a small tech venture into a multimodal travel-platform with hundreds of crores in revenue and strong investor backing.
The Founder & Origins
Co-founded by Manish Rathi (along with Kapil Raizada and Sachin Saxena) in ~2014 in Noida, RailYatri was born from a personal frustration of waiting at stations, not knowing train arrival times or seat availability. That pain point fed into a vision: “Make travel smoother for Bharat.”
Manish and his co-founders started modestly — no large bank loans, no big family legacy in travel tech. Just a team, a laptop, a problem-statement, and the belief that millions of Indian train passengers deserved better.
Key Milestones & Growth Path
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2014: RailYatri is founded, focusing on train-travel information — live train status, PNR checks, platform locators.
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Over time they added features like “Where is my Train”, real-time train tracking (via crowdsourced GPS), and platform information, improving the traveller experience.
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They expanded into bus travel too through their brand IntrCity SmartBus (under parent Stelling Technologies) covering major corridors.
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FY 22 → FY 23: Revenue grew ~2.3× from ~₹ 117.2 crore to ~₹ 273.7 crore. Losses shrank from ~₹ 43.87 crore to ~₹ 18.18 crore.
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FY 24: The consolidated business (IntrCity + RailYatri) posted ~₹ 317.34 crore revenue and losses dropped to ~₹ 9.9 crore.
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Funding & Valuation: RailYatri has raised over US$ 50 million to date. In the latest Series C top-up of ~$3.4 million the post-money valuation was estimated around ~₹ 912 crore (~US$110 million).
The Product & Vision
RailYatri’s core product started by giving train-travellers data they lacked: live train status, seat availability, PNR tracking, platform locator. The thinking: if you know where your train is, you save time, money, stress.
Then they branched into bus travel, meals on train, last-minute ticket changes (“flexi-ticket”) and more. The vision: convert travel from waiting and worrying into moving and managing.
The Struggles & What They Learnt
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Starting in a crowded travel-tech space made differentiation a challenge — price, features and service had to stand out.
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Monetisation was tough initially: users expect free or very low-cost services, but running real-time data and operations costs money.
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Moving from train data to bus operations required logistics, fleet partnerships, regulatory work — far beyond mere app-development.
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Scaling from Tier-1 to Tier-2/3 India meant handling lesser-known routes, inconsistent infrastructure, variable demand — but this is where the growth lies.
Current Scale & What It Means
RailYatri today serves millions of travellers, both those checking trains and booking cross-city buses. With hundreds of crores in annual revenue, it is approaching break-even and positioning for more expansion, deeper Tier-2/3 reach, and higher frequency travel solutions.
What’s Next?
Expect RailYatri (and IntrCity) to push more into mobility services: more bus routes, possibly coach upgrades, deeper travel-ecosystem plays (accommodation, intra-city travel), and tech-driven traveller services (dynamic scheduling, data-driven route planning). Also expect investor interest to rise if break-even nears and growth continues.
Conclusion
RailYatri began from a simple idea: travellers shouldn’t wait aimlessly at stations. Today it has grown into a travel-tech company generating ₹hundreds of crores in revenue, backing from top investors, and ambitious scale in both train and bus travel. Its founder’s journey from data-frustration to building a national mobility brand is inspiring for any entrepreneur wanting to serve India’s mass-traveller segments.