Australian Travel Startup Tripalocal Secures RMB 5 M For Chinese Expansion

Australian Startup Tripalocal has announced RMB 5 million (AUD$850,000)  from Euler Capital, hoping to crack into the China outbound travel market, which is expected to double to 200 million by 2020.

Last Year the Australian Trade and Investment Ministry started offering three-year visas for Chinese tourists. Melbourne-based travel experience platform Tripalocal took this opportunity and started a travel company that features a Chinese translated website.

Tripalocal, which provides Chinese travelers with local experiences in Melbourne and Sydney, was also part of Telstra’s second round of Muru-D participants. Earlier this year, Muru-D took its cohort including Tripalocal to China to introduce them to local startups and investors. 

“We will be covering all of Australia initially before going global,” Co-founder and CEO of Tripalocal, Jemma Xu said. ” I hope that the business will be scalable, and able to expand to other English-speaking countries such as New Zealand in the next 12 months.” 

Tripalocal already has offices established in Shanghai and Beijing, and it has secured partnerships with a range of Chinese travel companies including Ctrip. The company was also one of fifteen top startups in TechCrunch’s Beijing Disrupt. 

Image Credit: Tripalocal