I’m Abrar Ahmad — founding partner of Travel Capitalist Ventures, a boutique VC and PE firm that invests exclusively in travel. AbrarNotes is where I share what 24+ years inside this industry actually look like: the viewpoints, not the press releases.
What I do
I lead investments in high-growth travel companies across MENA, Turkey, Africa, India and select other markets — travel fintech, technology platforms, exchanges, payments and hotel management among them. We invest our own funds alongside co-investors like Global Founders, PnP and Accel-KKR. And we invest smart capital: deep travel domain expertise, travel-trade connections, the right supplier relationships and nine-figure annual purchasing volume participation — not just money.
Before investing, I built
I grew Foraticket Luxury Travel from a part-time, five-page travel website in 2001 into a multi-million-dollar-a-year, full-service licensed travel agency serving leisure, luxury, wholesale and corporate markets, with sales offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and India. Before that: interim CIO for a travel technology provider, technology consulting inside a $6B managed-services conglomerate, and building one of the first integrated offline/online travel CRMs.
Advisory & boards
I’ve been a hands-on board member and mentor to travel startups at in5 Innovation Hub (Dubai), Google Umbono (Cape Town), Fishfishme, Voopter and Indjets — one of four government-authorized in-flight WiFi providers in India — among others.
What I write about here
Travel industry strategy and events, startups and funding, travel technology and AI, and emerging markets. I also speak at conferences on travel investment and emerging-market opportunities.