Viatu - Afrikan Heroes

Africa-focused Wildlife Travel Startup Viatu Raises $1M

May 7, 2023

Viatu, a Switzerland-based startup that provides a booking platform for multi-day, eco-friendly trips, has successfully raised $1 million in seed funding. Ndoto led the funding round, with the participation of ASI Reisen and angel investors, including Loic Amado. The company’s platform enables users to book lodging, experiences, and car rentals through a single platform, and its trip builder features live pricing and availability.

Viatu is committed to promoting non-traditional destinations by making information about those places more accessible. It specializes in offering trips to sub-Saharan African destinations, such as Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, and South Africa. The platform includes various options for experiences, such as “eco-luxury” getaways in the Etosha National Park.

The company places a strong emphasis on sustainable travel and aims to make it easier for its users in several ways. It only offers destinations that meet the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s destination criteria, and all of its service providers are scored using the Green Globe International Standard for Sustainable Tourism metrics. Viatu also tracks carbon calculations for all types of activities, including car rentals and hotel stays, enabling it to either make climate contributions or directly purchase relevant credits on behalf of its users, such as carbon credits from the Wonderbag climate project in South Africa.

In 2022, Viatu’s revenue quadrupled in comparison to its first year of operation. As the company enters its third year of operation, it aims to triple its revenue. The latest funding will go towards finalizing and improving the booking system.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard

Africa-focused Wildlife Travel Startup Viatu Secures Six-Figure Funding

November 30, 2020

Travel booking startups in Africa are still very much in the league despite unappealing stories about investments in that ecosystem. Viatu, based off Switzerland, is betting on Namibia, Southern Africa as it aims to disrupt the travel booking industry with its Safari-inspired solution. To make that happen, the startup has announced it has secured a six-figure funding round from a number of undisclosed investors.

“I’m very excited about where we are. To see so many people support our mission, it’s been incredible to know that others too believe in the positive power of travel. We’re grateful to our investors and ready to get out there and change the way we travel,” said Alfredo Seidemann, Founder and CEO of Viatu, about the investment.

Alfredo Seidemann, Founder and CEO of Viatu. — *Alfredo Seidemann, Founder and CEO of Viatu*.

Here Is What Is You Need To Know

Nobody knows the exact amount of this investment or who the investors were but Viatu founder said the funding will assist the startup to launch a new travel platform, focusing on Namibia as its first destination for travelers.
Apart from this, the funding will go a long way in helping Viatu build a functional and reliable MVP, including the tailoring of trips, the ability or customise trips according to users’ preferences, and instant booking.

What Does Viatu Do, In Details?

Founded just this August and based in Zug, Switzerland, Viatu allows users to book trips into adventurous and off-the-beaten-track locations for conscious travelers. The startup is planning to launch its sustainable travel platform early 2021 in Namibia. A new six-digit-investment obtained through the pre-seed round will bolster the company’s plans. Viatu was built by a team of experts comprising of former executives in travel, ex-Googlers and Booking.com engineers. Their ambition is to disrupt the USD 200 billion global wildlife and adventure industry with its easy-to-use digital platform.

Aligning with a number of partners, Viatu ensures that users are able to book instantly without the need for a middle man agent. Both the accommodation and transportation undergo a vetting process to ensure that it abides by a sustainable guideline.

“Travel is not just an item you sell-off a shelf and sell off. It’s personal and it’s powerful and I think we don’t realize that enough. The wildlife and adventure market is a $200 billion industry waiting to be disrupted!,” said Seidemann.

“Despite travel and tourism being one of the hardest-hit sectors during the global Coronavirus crisis, we see the current situation as an opportunity to hit the reset button on over-tourism. In a post-COVID world, reinventing travel is the only option! Based on principles of regenerative travel, we envision a new way for tourism to provide a lasting positive impact for local environments and people”, Seidemann further said.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer