Rising Demand for International Travel Spurs Atlys ₹1 Visa Initiative

Visa processing platform Atlys has announced what it calls India’s first ₹1 visa sale, set to run on August 4 and 5 on its website. The initiative comes as Indian outbound travel continues to grow, driven by younger travellers and rising interest in new destinations.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of high non-refundable visa expenses for Indian travellers. A European Commission and Condé Nast Traveller report estimated that Indian applicants collectively lost over ₹664 crore in visa fees in 2024.

Founder and CEO Mohak Nahta, a former Pinterest engineer, said the initiative is aimed at addressing cost-related hesitation, especially among first-time travellers. “We anticipate the strongest demand for UAE visas, followed by the UK. Urban millennials and Gen Z from metro cities are likely to drive the most traffic,” Nahta said in a conversation with AsiaTechDaily.

Atlys reported a notable rise in travel queries in the last two months, with searches for destinations like Vietnam, Indonesia, Georgia, the UK, and the UAE up 18% to 44% compared to the previous period. This growth is largely driven by Tier 1 and Tier 2 city travellers, with a significant share coming from those planning their first international trip.

Since its launch in 2021, Atlys has focused on simplifying the visa application process with a multi-layered infrastructure that includes validation, verification, and fraud detection. This allows applications to be processed in under 10 minutes while improving the likelihood of approval.

Explaining the system, Nahta said, “There are many layers we built behind the scenes. A validation layer ensures all documents and information meet government requirements. A verification layer checks authenticity and identity. Then we have fraud and signal layers that analyze multiple data points, including financial profiles and bank statements—essentially front-loading the checks that governments would do on their end.”

The platform has processed over 2 million visas globally and raised $35 million in funding, which has largely been directed toward R&D and product development. Beyond visa processing, Atlys now offers travel insurance, forex, and eSIM services, but Nahta said the company is not looking to become a broad travel super app.

“We just plan to stay focused on short-term visas,” he said. “We want to solve one problem really, really well for now,” Nahta told AsiaTechDaily.

India’s outbound travel market has been expanding rapidly, led by younger and first-time international travellers exploring both traditional and emerging destinations. With visa rejections and non-refundable fees posing a persistent hurdle, the sector is seeing increasing interest in technology-driven solutions that simplify applications and reduce uncertainty. Initiatives like Atlys’ ₹1 visa sale have shown how travel tech startups are leveraging automation and data to respond to this shift, as the industry moves toward a more accessible and streamlined global travel experience.