Travel fintech startup Scapia has raised $63 million in a fresh funding round led by General Catalyst, with continued participation from existing investors Peak XV Partners and Z47.
“We’re still very young and very small in terms of the largeness of India. There’s a large opportunity to scale the business into a larger customer base,” said Anil Goteti, founder and chief executive of Scapia in a conversation with Mint. The company’s Series C was an all-primary round with no secondary transactions.
The company declined to comment on its valuation, saying that it is “ultimately an outcome of long-term execution.”
The company operates at the intersection of fintech and travel, offering a marketplace for users to book flights and purchase travel-related products, alongside co-branded credit cards in partnership with Federal Bank and Bank of Baroda.
Scapia’s fundraise comes as Gen Z and millennial consumers in India increasingly allocate more spending toward travel. A joint report by Redseer Strategy Consultants and Fireside Ventures earlier this year found that one in three consumers spend over 20% of income on travel. India’s Gen Z is expected to spend $102 billion on travel by 2030, up from $32 billion in FY24.
AI push
The four-and-a-half-year-old company plans to use the capital to scale its customer base, invest in AI-native product development and hire talent across teams.
“A large chunk of the hires will be towards AI-native builders, a lot more towards product development. That’ll include engineers, data scientists, designers, and product folks who can continue to innovate,” said Goteti.
Given Scapia’s business model, a significant portion of the capital will also go toward deploying AI across the platform internally and for customer-facing products.
“Technology isn’t the problem. It’s user experience and design that needs to be figured out. A typical chat interface will not work,” Goteti said.
He argued that AI-led consumer experiences in travel would require audio-visual interfaces where users can see destinations, products and experiences before booking.
The company already uses AI internally for teams and customer service operations and plans to expand its use across the travel marketplace. Goteti said some AI products are already live and that Scapia is actively experimenting with AI-native travel experiences.
Growth focus
While Scapia currently partners with two banks, the company is in the process of adding new banking partners, with discussions expected to close before the beginning of Q3 this fiscal year.
Scapia’s user base is largely made up of Gen Z and millennial consumers, with the average user age at 29. The company does not currently plan to expand into older demographics.
The company declined to provide details on the number of users it has but said that it has grown nearly 8x over the past year, with the hotels segment seeing the most growth, at 10-15x year-on-year.
“50% of India’s new cards are being issued to these generations, and it’ll only continue to grow. I want to have a sharp strategy on who I want to target and offer them something that not only appeals to them, but also serves their needs,” said Goteti.
Most of Scapia’s users currently come from Tier-I cities, though the company sees Tier-II and smaller markets as a major growth driver going forward.
“Rising disposable incomes, improving travel infrastructure, and social media-driven travel aspirations are all contributing to this shift,” said Goteti. “We see significant long-term potential in these markets as travel becomes more accessible and aspirational across India.”
The company is also exploring additional financial services products beyond its existing no-cost EMI and ‘Travel Now Pay Later’ offerings.
“We do think there is an opportunity — if people are already exhausting their limit on the card — is there some temporary loan that they can avail for their travels or any other need that they have. So we are going to embark on those journeys as well in financial services,” Goteti said.
The company’s revenue as of the end of FY25 stood at ₹40.4 crore, up from ₹24.2 crore the year prior, according to data from Tracxn. Scapia narrowed losses marginally as well, to ₹83.1 crore, down from ₹88 crore in FY24.
“Scapia is in investment mode right now, and that’s a very deliberate choice. As our customer cohorts mature and scale, we believe profitability will follow organically,” said Goteti. “As the business evolves, our approach will be to balance growth with sustainable profitability over the long term.”
