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Q3 2019 Quarterly Update

The inner workings of Timbuktu

Q3 2019 Progress

At the beginning of Q3, we set the following three goals and used them as a compass to prioritise our work over the three months. The following is a brief snapshot of how well we did:

Pave the way for our B2B model

For the past five years, we have been focused on revolutionising how people discover and book safaris, empowering travellers to create their own trips across Africa. In doing so, we have learnt that the same technology that empowers travellers can also empower travel agents, making it simple and easy to create engaging trip proposals for their travellers and streamlining the booking process.

For the past two years, we have been working with one independent travel agent who has been successfully using the Timbuktu platform to create trip proposals and manage bookings.

We have now built a white label version of the platform which we’re going to be piloting with a small group of test agents in November, with a view to launching before the end of 2019. This is a hugely exciting model as it leverages the existing technology and content that we’ve created with Timbuktu, and is extremely scalable.

Reach profitability

Q3 saw a strong sales performance with 80% year-on-year growth and a drive towards becoming profitable as a business.

We launched an automated pricing solution that optimises price according to factors such as source market and destination, which has increased our nett margin (after credit card fees).

We had a strong month in October, hitting our monthly record in sales of $770k.

Create the best safari planning experience

Q3 was another busy quarter on the tech front with lots of changes and improvements.

Special Offers turned out to be a lot more complex than we had first predicted so this is still very much a work in progress. We’re as excited as ever about the launch of this product, which will make it easier for our travellers to access unique deals across Africa and use them to plan their own dream trip. Watch this space!

We have now built and launched a new version on the Trip Editor to make it easier for guests to create and build their own trips with suggested next regions.

We have been writing new and improved planning guides for countries across Africa in order to improve conversion on the site and increase organic traffic to the blog. Q3 saw 42k organic visitors (90% growth compared to Q3 2018).

Q4 and beyond

The big focus for us in Q4 is the launch of our B2B platform and we are extremely excited to unveil the first version of the product to you all in the next few months.

This is just a high level overview of what we’ve been working on at Timbuktu HQ. Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or would like to hear more!