Started as a travel booking platform for army personnel, udChalo has evolved into a super-app offering 2.8 million defence families services ranging from loans and tax filing to sale of residential flats, e-bikes and discounted Samsung accessories, among others.
“In the beginning, we tried to solve one simple problem of army people forced to travel in the general compartment of railway trains as their leave is typically sanctioned at the last moment and they cannot book tickets in advance. In 2012, nearly 30,000 army people were travelling this way each day,” recounts Ravi Kumar, Founder and CEO, udChalo.
At the same time, there were 48,000 airline seats going vacant each day. udChalo came up with the idea of tapping these empty seats to provide affordable airline tickets to army personnel.
Kumar says it was udChalo that developed the concept of ‘defence fares’ for airline tickets. In 2013-14, Jet Airways offered defence fares for the first time, in collaboration with udChalo. Later, all other airlines followed suit.
From ₹20 lakh worth of ticket sales in 2014-15, udChalo registered a whopping 430 per cent compounded annual growth rate by FY 2019-20, with ticket sales garnering the platform ₹810 crore.
Post Covid, udChalo diversified its offerings to include tax filing services, all types of travel bookings such as hotels, cabs, and buses, besides tying up with brands like Samsung to offer discounted accessories to defence personnel. It partnered with a non-banking financial company to launch lending services and has disbursed ₹2.5 crore worth of loans as of May 2023.
Revenue model
The bootstrapped business’s travel segment currently has a ‘gross merchandise value’ (GMV) — value of goods sold on the platform — of nearly $100 million. The company’s revenue comes from a convenience fee charged on all travel bookings and taxation services. In its lending services, it charges a processing fee and has a share of the total assets under management. In e-commerce, too, udChalo enjoys a share of the sale value.
To expand its customer reach, udChalo has built 70-plus contact centres across the country, with a special focus on areas with a presence of armed forces. It also has a team of business development managers who visit army units to familiarise them with udChalo’s products and services. Kumar aims to soon have 250 contact centres across India.