Travel technology startup Onto has raised $1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Stargazer Fund, with participation from Singapore-based White Venture Capital. The funding comes as the company launches its travel platform, featuring a post-booking price-tracking service designed to help travellers save money on hotel reservations.
Founded in June 2026 by Jagdeep Singh and Shubham Goyal, Onto enables users to discover and book hotels while tracking price changes on eligible reservations. Its first offering, Price Drop Refund, aims to address a common challenge faced by travellers: hotel prices can decline even after a reservation has been confirmed.
The company plans to use the fresh capital to scale operations, strengthen its technology infrastructure and develop additional products for travellers.
Price Drop Refund Targets Post-Booking Savings
Onto’s first product focuses on what happens after a hotel reservation is made. If the price of an eligible booking falls later, the platform refunds the difference to the original payment method, subject to the booking meeting the applicable eligibility requirements.
The service monitors hotel rates after a reservation is confirmed. When the same hotel room for the same dates becomes available at a lower price, Onto identifies the difference and processes the eligible refund.
Travellers receive updates about price changes and refunds through WhatsApp and app notifications, reducing the need to repeatedly check hotel rates manually.
The feature is available for eligible reservations made directly through Onto as well as qualifying bookings made on other platforms. This extends the service beyond reservations completed within the startup’s own ecosystem.
By focusing on post-booking price changes, Onto aims to help travellers benefit from lower rates without having to manage the monitoring process themselves.
$1 Million Funding to Support Expansion
The $1 million pre-seed round will provide Onto with capital to strengthen its technology platform, expand operational capabilities and develop new products.
The participation of Stargazer Fund and White Venture Capital comes as the startup builds its initial customer offering and works towards expanding its presence in the travel technology market.
Onto has integrated with multiple hotel suppliers, enabling it to offer accommodation bookings across domestic and international destinations. These integrations provide the foundation for its current booking service and support its plans to broaden the range of travel-related services available to users.
The company intends to build on its existing capabilities as it develops further features beyond hotel discovery, reservations and price monitoring.
AI-Powered Features Planned for Personalised Hotel Discovery
Alongside its price-tracking service, Onto is developing artificial intelligence-based features intended to make hotel discovery more personalised.
The planned tools are designed to understand travellers’ preferences and past travel behaviour, recommend relevant accommodation options and explain why particular recommendations may suit individual needs.
Rather than simply presenting a list of available hotels, the company aims to make the discovery process more relevant to each traveller.
By combining accommodation bookings, post-booking price monitoring and personalised recommendations, Onto is working towards a platform that supports multiple stages of the hotel-booking journey.
The AI-powered features remain under development, and the company has not announced a rollout timeline.
Onto Plans to Expand Beyond Hotel Reservations
Onto’s longer-term vision extends beyond hotel bookings, with plans to develop additional products aimed at simplifying other parts of the travel experience.
For now, Price Drop Refund remains its primary offering. The feature focuses on helping travellers capture potential savings when hotel rates fall after a booking has been confirmed, while the company’s supplier integrations enable accommodation discovery across multiple destinations.
The startup’s immediate priorities include scaling operations, improving its technology infrastructure and expanding its product portfolio. Its planned AI-powered recommendations represent another step towards a more personalised travel experience.
Building a More Flexible Hotel-Booking Experience
Onto’s launch comes with a model that shifts part of the focus from finding a competitive hotel rate at the time of booking to monitoring prices after the reservation is complete.
With $1 million in pre-seed funding secured, the Bengaluru-based startup plans to strengthen its platform and introduce additional services for travellers.
As Onto develops its price-monitoring capabilities and explores AI-driven personalisation, its progress will depend on how effectively it can deliver eligible savings, expand its supplier network and turn its initial offering into a broader travel technology platform.
By : Vanshika Tayal
