From student dream to global force in travel: Obilet’s journey

When we first met the two in 2014, they were ambitious new grads with no prior professional experience, a profile we find does not often achieve the best outcomes. We were also initially skeptical of the bus travel market, as we mostly focus on B2B software businesses with exceptions in B2C only for large market opportunities. 

When we looked at the data, however, it became clear the founders were on to something. As with other rare marketplace successes, we believed that Obilet could build dominance in one lucrative category first. Then, as they become top of mind for users, they would have a defensible edge — uncommon in the travel category where barriers to entry are low — and resources to leverage to scale into other verticals and markets. 

Time proved Ali, Yigit, and us correct. Today, Obilet is a travel giant and a leader in both B2C and B2B. The company sold roughly 50 million tickets last year, has expanded into flights, hotels, car rentals, and ferries, and established an international footprint. 

Late last year, their success culminated in a strategic partnership with global travel network BlaBlaCar, marking Obilet's evolution from a student project to a transformative force in travel technology. We caught up with Ali and Yigit to talk about the lessons from a decade-plus journey, including how they conquered B2B and B2C, how they built a loyal customer base through data, and how they became a hidden role model to global travel companies. 

The story of Obilet begins with an unusual premise: a partnership in search of an idea. "Our decision to launch a startup wasn't tied to a specific idea at the outset, it was born out of a desire for partnership," the co-founders explain. "As the co-founders, our first decision was to work together as lifelong partners, whatever the opportunity is."

Bek always looks for early-stage founding teams to have a balanced mix of complementary skills. It’s never a perfect mix, but we at least look for the core elements required to scale the business to a certain stage to be there early on.

It was evident that Ali and Yigit were uniquely matched; they had complementary — even mutually exclusive — competencies, and strong self-awareness about how they could work together. It’s a testament to this that they were able to manage such a strong and successful co-CEO partnership, a setup we see working in very few other companies.

Ali and Yigit set out to solve a travel challenge they knew intimately as students: creating a single platform where users could view all intercity bus journeys, compare prices, and book tickets online. In 2012, with just $25,000 in capital and no employees beyond themselves, Obilet was born. 

"Our approach was simple yet ambitious: make bus ticketing our sole focus, onboard as many bus operators as possible, prioritize online marketing, and deliver the best possible product experience to customers," they explain. This laser focus on a single vertical, and the only travel category where we believed a real edge could be built, combined with a deep understanding of both customer and operator needs, would become their competitive advantage.

During the first two years, Obilet was just Ali and Yigit working tirelessly. They sold their first near-million tickets and learned the fundamentals of running an online business. Next up: learning to scale and build a proper company. 

In the beginning, many of the hundreds of Turkish bus operators relied on manual and legacy systems that could not integrate with modern platforms or give real-time updates. At one time, Obilet even had a team that would manually buy tickets on individual bus operator systems when a customer reserved on Obilet. 

At this early juncture, Obilet received journey data about hundreds of bus operators from one B2B provider, who it also competed with on the B2C side. When this company unexpectedly ended its partnership with Obilet, leaving the fledgling travel company with only a few bus carriers to list and little revenue, a bold decision was needed. Obilet would start building its own integrated ticket management system immediately. 

While many B2C marketplaces face similar risks with their suppliers, shifting from B2C to B2B operations is rarely straightforward. It requires building entirely different capabilities — from engineering talent to sales functions — while managing a high-growth consumer business. Most companies hesitate to make this transition, fearing disruption to existing supplier relationships.

But Obilet was prepared. Long before the crisis, they had signed an exclusive license with a provider of bus operator software as a contingency plan. This foresight, and encouragement from the board, helped them build B2B expertise while business was smooth and accelerate their development efforts when needed.

It was a good reminder of how crucial boards and advisors are in helping founders anticipate risks and challenges three or four years down the road, including exit readiness. 

“One of the most crucial takeaways has been the importance of approaching every situation with caution and being prepared for the unexpected,” the founders say.

The investment in B2B paid off. Within a few years, Obilet regained its position as the top player in the B2C bus ticketing market, and by 2020, had the largest carrier portfolio. In 2021, the company even acquired its chief competitor which had once almost spelled the end of their business. The two competitors were not on good terms, which showed how helpful investors can be in stepping in and starting initial conversations between the two organizations. 

Smart marketing and rigorous analytics drove Obilet's early success. They pioneered creative campaigns like student loyalty programs and innovative features such as showing sun exposure on bus routes. As early adopters of micro-influencer marketing, they backed YouTube creators who now have millions of subscribers, while cleverly converting offline partnerships into online engagement through initiatives like fast-food restaurant coupon programs.

Though the number of users increased rapidly in the early years of Obilet, there came a time when sustaining momentum took more work. "As we continued to operate in a traditional market, it became evident that the potential for new user acquisition would eventually plateau” they say. 

Rather than chase new users at any cost, Obilet began focusing on deeper metrics such as repeat sales and lifetime value (LTV), successfully increasing LTV over time. 

Another challenge was the high cost of Google AdWords spend — the Google dependency often threatens the viability of many B2C categories. Again, the team went deep in the numbers, breaking down their Marketing-to-GMV ratios into detailed segments and implementing a targeted channel and promotion strategy to increase direct traffic and mobile app usage, ultimately a more cost-effective way to drive sales and engagement. 

We remember the early conversations around investing in the mobile app by providing analysis and insight into how companies built loyalty with customers in other sectors using apps. The Obilet founders executed flawlessly, building a large, loyal base through the app. Even when Obilet had scaled, the team never lost its ability to growth hack or identify exactly where they should be focusing their marketing efforts. 

By 2019, Ali and Yigit recognized the need to transition from a founder-led organization to a scale-up model and faced many of the challenges we see founding teams face as they try and get the right mix of capabilities in the room. 

"We didn't limit ourselves to just filling positions; we aimed to hire the best talent available," they explain. Their philosophy centered around fostering an environment of growth, trust, and mutual respect, starting with bringing in experienced executive staff to lead newly created departments. We supported them on their hiring efforts closely, and it wasn’t hard to want to refer the best to Ali and Yigit given their drive and the company’s momentum. 

When it came to choosing outside investors, the Obilet co-founders say they “focused on factors beyond the financial aspects of the term sheets”, including prior experience in the industry and with similar-sized companies, mentorship, and network access. Bek Ventures was the company’s first and largest investor.  

The Bek team exceeded expectations from a standard lead investor. Their guidance, knowledge-sharing, and hands-on approach were instrumental in helping us establish a clear start-up strategy, shape our product roadmaps, and identify key risks and opportunities,” the founders say. “At a time when we were still building our internal capabilities and institutional structure, their expertise played a pivotal role, offering a strategic perspective that went well beyond financial backing.”

Given how good a fit the relationship between Bek’s investment team and Obilet leadership, the team let us lead both their Series A and Series B after we initially invested at seed. This allowed Bek to build up a sizeable position in the company while lessening the pressure on the founders when fundraising. It was an honor that the founders had confidence enough in us that they allowed us to lead multiple rounds.

Our ownership percentage exceeded that which VCs normally seek to hold in a portfolio company. We pursue this strategy with only a few portfolio companies, thanks to the select size of our portfolio, which allows us to be flexible and seek an ownership position that makes the most sense for us and the portfolio company, similar to some US VCs.

After establishing dominance in the region, Obilet was on the radar of every major travel company in the world. Companies from India to Germany and Brazil looked to Obilet’s innovation features as a glimpse at the future of travel. Obilet was also highly profitable with a strong balance sheet. 

This allowed Obilet to develop relationships with many potential, future strategic partners, as Obilet itself was scouting for acquisitions in regions like Latin America. It was during this time they got acquainted with BlaBlaCar — whose CEO, Nicolas Brusson, they had known for more than a decade when the partnership was announced. 

“As we delved into discussions, we learned more about each other's visions and explored potential synergies, and it became clear to both teams that this partnership was an ideal match,” the founders say. 

Bek always advocates that companies nurture ties with potential strategic partners far before a transaction is on the cards. The Obilet team’s journey is a great demonstration of how this can pay off. 

The next stage for Obilet? Continue the journey as a global leader in multi-modal travel, leveraging the model that they built in the region to become a leader in new markets.