TBM Staff - Mumbai To drive its expansion and growth plans globally, Gurgaon-based travel company Adventures Overland has raised USD 1 million led by Mumbai-based Shalin & Nishita Sarvaiya along with Ashok Shah who are partners at Adam Exports, a garment export house with strong foothold in the European market.
With over a decade of operating self-drive road trips across 5 continents, Adventures Overland is now looking at expanding globally through their curated road trips. As part of its growth strategy, it is looking at forays into the US and UK markets in phase 1 of its global outreach initiative.
Much like Tony and Maureen Wheeler in the 1970s, Co-Founders of Adventures Overland – Sanjay Madan and Tushar Agarwal set off on a world road trip in 2012. Covering 90,000 km across 50 countries, the intrepid duo set records galore en route – 1 Guinness World Record and 15 Limca Records. The journey was filmed and ‘The Great Indian World Trip’ was aired on TLC channel and is currently streaming on Discovery+. Soon after the trip, the duo set up Adventures Overland organising its maiden commercial trip to Ladakh in the Himalayas. Since then, the company has organised over 100 expeditions in 80 countries. Over 1000 guests have travelled with Adventures Overland, with rave reviews taking their stock high.
Self-drive holidays are a way of life in the US and UK, but there aren’t many players in the guided, small group self-drive segment that allows travel enthusiasts to drive in convoys with radio sets in each car through remote parts of the world such as Central Asia, Alaska, along the west coast of South America through the Andes or the thick forests of Africa, without any worries of break downs, language barriers, navigating through difficult terrain etc. “It is a well-known fact that road trips are the best way to explore a country or region. Once you are in the driving seat the feeling of being a foreigner in a new place goes away. It feels like being in sync with the land,” says Madan.
Cross border trips are one of the unique product categories being offered by Adventures Overland. In 2023 the company plans to run a Bus to London from Delhi. This epic journey, reminiscent of the Hippie Trail of the 1960s and 70s, has revved up considerable interest worldwide. “Every single route in each country has been vetted to ensure that the journey is seamless. We take charge of documentation, paperwork, visas and permits to ensure that the entire focus of participants is on experiencing the journey. We ensure an experienced English-speaking local guide is travelling with the group at all hours to ensure personal safety, smooth communication, and travel. The bus on this epic journey is being customised to add all the necessities, comforts and luxuries which will ensure that participants travel in the lap of luxury from Delhi to London” added Agarwal.
On how infusion of funds will help drive growth Madan said, “It will help us take the brand footprints across the globe. We plan on opening offices in 6 continents and investing into a fleet of 4×4 SUVs to cater to the huge demand of experiential travel. With this round of funding, Adventures Overland plans to organise 1000+ trips globally over the next three years. A sizeable chunk of the funding will also be used for global marketing, infrastructure upgradation, product development, content creation and expansion into tier 2 cities.”
Speaking from the investor perspective Shalin quoted, “We have been clients of Adventures Overland and participated in many trips. We strongly identified with the passion of the founders – Sanjay and Tushar. The thought of being equity stakeholders emanated from our love of travel and the desire to create a world class brand.”
