Money, on the other hand, is unnatural. Money is merely a tool made by humans to transact in its man-made society. Money, unfortunately, is the biggest hiccup for travellers not being able to travel as often as they want to.
Something unnatural has always been hindering our natural desire to travel. Neomad is on a mission to change that.
Neomad is a platform where a close-knit cult of travellers crowdfund each other’s travel and wander the world without worrying about money. Neomad is leveraging the power of community, the economics of crowdfunding and the mechanics of gamification to make travelling super-affordable for everyone. Imagine Neomad to be a self-sustaining decentralized cult of travellers who can together eliminate the biggest problem while planning to travel, the need for money.
Here’s how it works
1. To get your travel crowdfunded by travellers on Neomad, you will need to create a “travel campaign”.
- A travel campaign helps you raise any amount of money to travel to any destination in the world, domestic or international.
2. To create a travel campaign, you will need to burn a certain amount of “NeoCoins“.
- The amount of NeoCoins required to create a travel campaign depends on how much money you are raising and the destination you want to go. E.g., To raise ₹40,000 for a Goa trip, one might require 6,000 NeoCoins, while to raise ₹2,00,000 for an Amsterdam trip, one might require 50,000 NeoCoins.
3. To earn NeoCoins, you will need to fund travel campaigns of other travellers on Neomad.
- 1 Rupee contributed = 1 NeoCoin earned.
The more you fund others, the more you can raise for your travel. Neomad was planned to be launched by May ’20, but COVID-19 not only shattered our 2020 travel plans but also brought travelling industry down to its knees. It was during this time when we realized two things :
1. We cannot launch Neomad in May ’20 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic when leisure travelling is brought to a complete screeching halt.
2. Since Neomad is a community-driven platform, building a strong community of travellers before its launch is very crucial for its success and for creating an optimal fundraising experience for all the travellers.
Therefore, we postponed Neomad’s launch and started a pre-launch initiative called #BeTravelReady. Under this initiative, we decided to build a community of giving travellers before Neomad’s launch by uniting them up to raise charity funds for people who are most impacted by this pandemic. We have partnered with PM CARES, Swiggy, Zomato, Stayabode and GiveIndia to raise funds for affected individuals such as migrant workers, unprivileged kids and our healthcare workers. As a reward for their act of charity, the travellers will get NeoCoins equal to the amount they donate. Travellers can use these NeoCoins to raise funds to travel to any destination of their choice after the lockdown.
In less than 15 days, we have built a community of 500+ travellers and raised donation upwards of ₹60,000. The more travellers give now, the sooner the pandemic ends, and we all get to explore the world like we used to.
Neomad is co-founded by three travel enthusiasts, Anushrut Khare, Srishti Rai and Sagarika Singh, who met and worked closely as core team members of Flynote, a Sequoia-backed travel startup.