AAO Hostels is a privately held Backpack Travelers Hostel company that provides budget accommodation to backpack travelers travelling to India. The company has its headquarters in Bangalore. History The company was founded in November 2015, by entrepreneurs Saurabh Jain and Mahendra Pyati, after a successful pilot during Kumbh Mela in Nashik, Maharashtra. While working for their respective organizations, Saurabh and Mahendra started their first hostel in Bangalore with their personal savings. Within 2 months, they realized the potential of this model as a full time business. After successful operations for 6 months, the team planned to take the backpacking culture in India to next level, through their technology platform to aggregate backpack hostels in India. Award by Tourism Department, Government of Karnataka The Karnataka Startup Cell and the State Tourism Department had organised the hackathon to crowd-source innovative applications that can promote tourism. On September 24th, a total of 127 online registrations were received from various startups under the Karnataka Startup Policy 2015-2016. Of these pitches, 49 were selected and 12 made it to the final round, where they then made pitches directly to the minister on September 25th, which resulted in eight of them being picked as winners today. The jury consisted of eminent members of the ecosystem, NASSCOM, IAMAI and officers from the startup cell and tourism departments. AAO Hostels won the first prize and received Rs 40 lakh as grant from the Tourism Department. Locations As of now, the company runs its first travelers hostel in Koramangala, the startup hub of Bangalore, with two more hostels being planned in Hampi and Mysore in Karnataka by December 2016.
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