Our story
It started with a tent
on Mousuni Island.
We didn't set out to build a travel company. We set out to answer one question — why does every trip feel like starting from scratch, even when you've travelled your whole life?
2017
Founded in Kolkata
How it began
Eight years.
One relentless idea.
We registered Izifiso in March 2017. By December, we had our first camp on Mousuni Island — a quiet sandbar off the Bengal coast where the river meets the sea. People booked a night or two. They came on weekends. They kept coming back.
That momentum told us something true: Indian travellers were hungry for real experiences. Not resorts. Not standard packages. Something alive, offbeat, and genuinely different. So we kept building — and the story that followed changed everything about what Izifiso is today.
The full journey
Every chapter
built the next one.
2017
The first camp. The first community.
We opened at Mousuni Island as a backpackers camp — one or two nights, weekend escapes, something you couldn't find on any mainstream platform. Word spread fast. Lake camps followed. Mountain camps. A haunted camp. Beach camps near waterfalls nobody had heard of. Each one was a new experiment in what experiential travel could feel like. Gopal Pal and Mehebub Alam laid the foundation — building Izifiso itself and keeping everything running behind the scenes.
2018
The team begins to form.
Joydev Barui joined and started shaping what the product actually looked and felt like. These weren't employees — they were people who believed in something before it had a name everyone recognised. A founders' team in the truest sense: willing to be anywhere, do anything, at any moment the work demanded it.
2019
Building the bones.
Saikat Bhadury, Ayon Das, Arpita Chakraborty, and Debjyoti Biswas came on board — technology, product thinking, operations, and the relentless work of opening new markets. The platform started taking shape. What had been a collection of camps started becoming a system.
2020
Covid arrived. And so did clarity.
The first wave hit hard. We survived — barely. But the second wave was devastating. And in the silence, we saw something uncomfortable: the camping concept we had helped pioneer was becoming crowded. What had once felt rare was now everywhere. The real problem we wanted to solve was getting lost. We had a choice: stay in a commoditised space, or go after something harder and more important. We chose harder.
2021
Rebuilding with purpose.
Neha Ray Chaudhury joined the technology team as we started rebuilding the platform for what we wanted to become — not just camps, but a genuine aggregator of unique stays that deserved to be found. The architecture of something bigger was beginning.
2022
A new chapter opens in April.
We pivoted to aggregating unique stays — not just camps, but any accommodation that was genuinely offbeat and worth discovering. Homestays. Eco stays. Heritage properties. Places that existed completely off mainstream platforms. We started in Bengal. The response from hosts and travellers was immediate. Suparna Saha, Sushneta Bose, Joy Das, and Buddhadeb Barui joined — bringing sharper analytics, tighter processes, and the sales energy we needed to grow. We expanded into Sikkim, Odisha, and Jharkhand.
2023
Travellers told us the truth.
Sovo Mondal joined to bring financial rigour as the business grew. But the most important thing that happened in 2023 came from our travellers themselves — feedback that changed our direction permanently. "The stay is beautiful, but I don't know how to get there." "We needed someone to plan the whole trip." Offbeat stays alone were not enough. Travellers needed reliable transport, curated activities, and someone to own the entire experience from first conversation to last goodbye. We listened.
2024
Personalised travel, end to end.
We became a full-scale personalised travel planning service — not just booking stays, but designing complete journeys. Anusmita Guha and Tanushree Majumder joined to sharpen processes and build the marketing engine. We expanded into Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, and Kashmir. Things moved. Numbers responded. And then we hit the wall that stops every personalised travel company from scaling — quality and consistency across states, languages, and destinations you cannot hire or train your way through fast enough.
2025
The intelligence layer.
We started building Travel Intelligence — a system that learns who a traveller is from their behaviour, preferences, feedback, and history. That profiles every destination and stay across 12 dimensions. That matches the two through genuine compatibility, not search. And that executes every detail — permits, cabs, hosts, 24/7 support — so the trip we promise is the trip you experience. The flywheel turns. Every journey makes the next one smarter. Unlike human knowledge, it doesn't forget, doesn't leave, and doesn't need to be retrained when we enter a new state.
2026
Here we are.
Izifiso — India's first Travel Intelligence platform. With our own verified inventory across India's most beautiful and remote locations — from the sandbanks of Mousuni to the monasteries of Ladakh, from the living root bridges of Meghalaya to the tribal homestays of Arunachal Pradesh. 62,000+ travellers. 275+ destinations. Built from Kolkata. Without external capital. On the belief that travel, done right, should feel like it was made for exactly you.
In numbers
The proof is in the journeys.
62K+
Travellers who trusted us with their journey
275+
Handpicked destinations across India
4.33
Average rating from 3,469+ reviews
40%
Travellers who come back for more
₹0
External capital — built entirely on real revenue
88.29
NPS score — world class by any benchmark
8 yrs
Of building quietly — and getting better every trip
“
Travel shouldn't start with searching. It should start with understanding.
— Gopal Pal, Founder, Izifiso · 2017
What we stand for
Not a travel agency.
Not an OTA.
Something new entirely.
01
We match — not search.
Every property has a DNA profile. Every traveller has one too. We match the two through genuine compatibility — 96%+ accuracy. Not recommendations. Matches.
02
We execute — not just plan.
Permits sorted. Cabs confirmed. Hosts briefed. 24/7 support during your journey. The trip we promise is the trip you experience. Every time.
03
We remember — every trip.
Feedback from every journey feeds your profile. Your next trip starts where the last one ended — not from scratch. By your third trip, we know your travel soul.
04
We serve one audience deeply.
Couples and small families, 24–44, who want travel that actually knows them. We said no to group tours. We said no to corporate events. Focus is our advantage.
Recognition
Quiet building.
Noticed anyway.
We didn't build Izifiso to win awards. We built it because travel deserved better. These came along the way.
Emerging Startup of the Year
Startup Jharkhand · EC 3.0 · Jharkhand's Largest Startup Summit 2026
First Runner Up — Best Social Impact
3rd CMA MSME Conclave · Catalyst Management Associates · Jan 2026
Pre-Seed Funding Commitment
Tigerpitch · June 2026 · The same person who believed in 2019 was first to say yes.
The people
The team that
built every chapter.
They didn't just join Izifiso. They built it — through camps, pivots, a pandemic, and everything that came after. Arranged here by when they arrived.
GP
Gopal Pal
With Izifiso since 2017
The one who started the fire — and keeps it burning
MA
Mehebub Alam
With Izifiso since 2017
Keeps the house in order — policy, compliance and the backbone that holds everything together
JB
Joydev Barui
With Izifiso since 2018
Shapes what the traveller actually experiences — the product heart of Izifiso
SB
Saikat Bhadury
With Izifiso since 2019
Builds the machine — every system, every platform, every line of code that makes Izifiso run
AD
Ayon Das
With Izifiso since 2019
Thinks through how the product should work before anyone else does
AC
Arpita Chakraborty
With Izifiso since 2019
Makes sure every trip we promise actually happens — operations is where commitments are kept
DB
Debjyoti Biswas
With Izifiso since 2019
Opens the doors to new markets — then makes sure we're ready to walk through them
NR
Neha Ray Chaudhury
With Izifiso since 2021
Writes the code that brings the intelligence to life
SS
Suparna Saha
With Izifiso since 2022
Reads the numbers that others miss — turns data into decisions
SB
Sushneta Bose
With Izifiso since 2022
Builds the systems that let Izifiso run the same way every single time
JD
Joy Das
With Izifiso since 2022
Turns curiosity into bookings — the voice that brings travellers through the door
BB
Buddhadeb Barui
With Izifiso since 2022
Listens to what travellers need — then makes sure they get it
SM
Sovo Mondal
With Izifiso since 2023
Watches the money so the mission never runs out of runway
AG
Anusmita Guha
With Izifiso since 2024
Tightens the screws — makes the complex look effortless from the outside
TM
Tanushree Majumder
With Izifiso since 2024
Tells the Izifiso story to the world — and makes sure the world listens
Ready to travel differently?
Your next trip should feel like
it was made for you.
Tell us what you love. We'll take care of the rest.
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