Five start-ups in the tourism industry—Taste Routes, Nepal Heritage Walk, Lhayul Laphing, Pixel Lab and Sajilo Trip—managed to secure investment commitments during the demo day of the Udhyami Seed Camp held in Kathmandu, on Sunday.

Themed under Udhyami Innovations, Taste Routes and Nepal Heritage Walk received an initial investment commitment from Sushant Murarka, managing director at Sarda Medicare Trader.

Murarka, a travel enthusiast himself, said that he appreciated the business concept of Taste Routes and Nepal Heritage Walk. Nepal Heritage Walk, founded by Tina Rajbhandari and Sagun Dhakhwa, is a digital platform that provides detailed information on heritage places, promotes local business and also conducts research in historical places.

People from the business community listen to the pitches by start-ups. POST PHOTO: KESHAV THAPA

Similarly, Taste Routes has a business concept which aims to develop Nepal as a gastro-tourism destination by conducting food tours, food walk, cooking

adventure. Taste Routes was founded by Rajat Bajaj.

Murarka said that both start-ups would help in promoting tourism, local culture and food.

Kavi Raj Joshi, co-founder and CEO at Next Venture Capital, said they expect 10 start-ups out of 15 to receive investors’ commitment within a week. Meanwhile, Udhyami Innovations announced the Rs50 million Udhyami Seed Fund to invest in early-stage start-ups. It is the first of its kind mentor’s fund, Joshi said.

Udhyami Innovation is a platform working for start-ups to start their business. Udhyami Innovation has been organising Udhyami Seed Camp from 2016 under different business themes, said Joshi, adding that the theme for this year was tourism.

Tourism Udhyami Seed Camp has been organised in coordination with the Nepal Tourism Board. The main objective of the programme is to provide a platform for start-ups that have business ideas but lack investment, he said. Udhyami Innovations has selected 15 out of 150 start-up applicants from across the nation.

Similarly, MyVisitNepal.com, Sulav Yatra, Dulwa.com, Firiri Nepal, Pixel Labs, Staygram, Sajilo Trip, Home.Sta Nepal, NepAR, The Mystic, Arch Events, and Hi Trekkers made their business presentation on the demo day.

According to Joshi, there are more than 200 angel investors or seed investors, who have been actively investing in start-ups. The start-ups will be getting an initial investment to operate their business. This can range from Rs500,000  to Rs5 million.

Deepak Raj Joshi, CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, said that the board has always been encouraging business ideas that could contribute towards the society and economy.