How Two Startups Are Digitizing the Way 170 Million Bangladeshis Travel
ShareTrip and GoZayaan are rewriting the rules of a market once dominated by back-alley agents and handwritten tickets. Here's the full story.
A Market Ripe for Disruption
Bangladesh has over 170 million people and a growing middle class with a hunger to travel — both domestically and abroad. Yet until recently, booking a flight or hotel meant visiting a cramped travel agency, negotiating on price with limited information, and hoping your agent was honest about the fare.
The country's online travel market is still in its infancy. Only 5 to 7 percent of all travel bookings happen through digital platforms. For entrepreneurs who saw what Expedia did in the West or MakeMyTrip did in India, that number isn't a problem — it's an invitation.
"95% of the Traditional Travel Agency market consists of field-level travel agents. OTAs are very small in size — only a few work in this spectrum."
— Farzana Faiza Bushra, Public Relations, GoZayaanTwo companies have risen above the noise to define what Bangladesh's digital travel future looks like: ShareTrip and GoZayaan. Both started lean, survived a global pandemic, and are now competing fiercely for the millions of Bangladeshis who are just one app download away from booking their next trip entirely online.
Meet the Two Giants
ShareTrip: The First Mover's Story
Before there was ShareTrip, there was Travel Booking BD — a modest online platform that Sadia Haque and Kashef Rahman launched in 2014. Haque had a decorated corporate career at Grameenphone, BBC World Service Trust, Nokia, and Banglalink, but she wanted to build something, not just manage it.
The rebrand to ShareTrip in July 2019 marked a new chapter. The platform launched iOS and Android apps, introduced gamification features like "Trip Coins" and a "Spin to Win" mechanic, and began building an end-to-end travel stack covering flights, hotels, tours, car rentals, and visa assistance.
Surviving COVID with a Pivot That Changed Everything
When the pandemic shut down Bangladesh in March 2020, ShareTrip launched its B2B portal in May — allowing thousands of offline travel agents to log in from home and continue serving customers digitally. They also built ST Rooms, a hotel management system that has since onboarded over 1,500 hotels. "Your shop is closed — but you can still log in from home," said Sadia Haque. "That changed everything."
That pivot transformed ShareTrip from a pure consumer platform into a B2C2B ecosystem. By 2022, over 7,000 agents had joined the B2B portal — giving ShareTrip unmatched demand aggregation power and better rates from airlines and hotel suppliers.
The company has since pushed into fintech with ST Pay and a co-branded SkyTrip credit card, partnered with BRAC to promote community-based tourism, and signed an MoU with the Malaysian Health Tourism Council — signalling ambitions far beyond simple flight booking.
Total funding has surpassed $11.5 million, from investors including Startup Bangladesh, Aurelia Ventures, and Skycatcher. ShareTrip has won the World Travel Awards consecutively from 2019 to 2024, and its CEO received the Outstanding Woman in Business Award in 2025.
Founded as Travel Booking BD
Sadia Haque and Kashef Rahman start the company as a digital travel platform.
Rebrands to ShareTrip & launches apps
New brand identity, gamified loyalty (Trip Coins), iOS & Android apps go live.
B2B Portal launched during COVID-19
Pivots to serve offline agents digitally; builds ST Rooms hotel management system.
7,000 B2B agents onboarded; $500K seed from Startup Bangladesh
Becomes the largest OTA in Bangladesh's online market.
Fintech expansion & international ambitions
ST Pay, SkyTrip credit card, medical tourism, BRAC partnership. Total funding crosses $11.5M.
GoZayaan: The VC-Backed Challenger
Ridwan Hafiz founded GoZayaan in August 2017 with a clear thesis: Bangladesh was the Expedia opportunity nobody was taking seriously. Bangladeshis couldn't effectively use global OTAs, and local options were fragmented and untrustworthy. GoZayaan set out to fix that.
The platform's user experience mirrors global OTAs — search, compare, book, pay — all without requiring a phone call or an agent. It covers domestic flights, international flights, hotels, tour packages, bus tickets, and travel insurance. In the domestic market alone, it has partnered with over 400 hotels and intercity bus operators.
"The future is online; Bangladesh will be no different. We are here to build the future of travel."
— Ridwan Hafiz, Founder & CEO, GoZayaanGoZayaan's growth is remarkable. Despite the pandemic, the company grew more than tenfold, leaning into domestic tourism when international travel collapsed. Today the platform serves approximately one million customers monthly, with a repeat customer rate climbing as high as 60%.
Its investor base reads like a who's who of emerging-market VC: Wavemaker Partners, DST Global, Sturgeon Capital, Salt Ventures, Century Oak Ventures, Iterative, and 1982 Ventures. Total funding stands at $8.1 million across four rounds, with a $2.5 million raise in early 2024 for further expansion.
In 2022, GoZayaan made its boldest move yet — acquiring FindMyAdventure, a Pakistani travel platform, and expanding into Pakistan. A further Pakistani platform acquisition followed in 2024, setting the stage for a multi-market play across South Asia.
ShareTrip vs. GoZayaan: Head-to-Head
| Category | ShareTrip | GoZayaan |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 | 2017 |
| Business Model | B2C + B2B (hybrid) | Primarily B2C |
| App Users | 650,000+ downloads | 500,000+ monthly active |
| Repeat Rate | 77%+ retention | 40–60% repeat |
| Total Funding | $11.5M+ | $8.1M |
| Key Investors | Startup Bangladesh, Aurelia, Skycatcher | Wavemaker, DST Global, Sturgeon Capital |
| International Presence | Planned expansion | Bangladesh + Pakistan |
| Fintech Products | ST Pay, SkyTrip Card | Travel Insurance |
| B2B Network | ~7,000 agents | 400+ hotel partners |
| Hotels Onboarded | 1,500+ (ST Rooms) | 400+ domestic partners |
Four Things Shaping Bangladesh's Travel Future
Regional Expansion
GoZayaan is in Pakistan. ShareTrip has global sights set. The question is who gets to India or Southeast Asia first.
Travel-Fintech Convergence
ST Pay and the SkyTrip credit card signal that travel companies are becoming financial services companies too.
Domestic Hotel Digitization
Most Bangladeshi hotels have no digital inventory. ST Rooms and similar platforms are racing to bring them online.
AI-Powered Personalization
ShareTrip is already deploying AI for personalized travel planning — a preview of how both platforms will compete in the coming years.
The Race Has Only Just Begun
ShareTrip and GoZayaan are not just travel booking apps. They are infrastructure builders — digitizing an industry that has barely moved online, bridging millions of offline consumers and agents into a connected economy, and proving that Bangladesh is fertile ground for serious tech investment.
ShareTrip holds the larger market share and has built a more diversified ecosystem — B2B, fintech, hotel management, medical tourism. GoZayaan is the leaner, VC-heavier challenger with cross-border ambitions already in motion.
With OTAs covering only 5–7% of Bangladesh's travel market today, both companies have enormous runway ahead. The real winner, ultimately, will be the Bangladeshi traveler — who is just discovering what it feels like to book a trip in seconds, on a phone, for a fair price, without ever visiting a single office.
"If you check the app or the website, you will find a lot of flight options and details. Traditional agents can't give you that."
— GoZayaan, on the OTA advantageResearch based on data from Tracxn, PitchBook, The Daily Star, The Business Standard, BoostUp Ads, and company sources as of April 2026.