Explurger is a travel‑first, Made‑in‑India social media app that’s suddenly back in the spotlight after its founder Jitin Bhatia was invited for a one‑on‑one interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, where the PM appreciated the platform’s vision of building a global travel‑tech social network.
What Explurger does
Explurger is a travel‑tech social media platform that lets users document trips, track miles and discover places while being rewarded for real‑world exploration rather than passive scrolling.
- Launched in 2022, it is a “gamified, AI‑powered” app that automatically creates a personal travelogue, counting the cities, countries and continents a user visits and mapping journeys on a timeline.
- Features include:
- The platform is built around travellers and explorers globally, with the company saying it now has 18 million+ users across 75+ countries.
Explurger positions itself as a vertical social network for travel, competing conceptually with Instagram/Snap but with deeper travel utilities and game mechanics.
Funding and investors
Explurger has raised multiple rounds over the past few years:
- Pre‑Series A (Dec 2021):
- Series A (Feb 2024):
- Recent capital / grants:
Google had earlier listed Explurger among the “10 most innovative apps making a mark in India and beyond”, and the app was part of the MeitY–Google Appscale Academy 2022 cohort, which also helped its visibility and product mentoring.
Recent milestones and coverage
- PM Modi interaction at G20 South Africa (2025):
- Jitin Bhatia was among a curated group of Indian‑origin tech entrepreneurs invited to meet the Prime Minister in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.
- In post‑event interviews and its own blog, Explurger says the PM appreciated the idea of a homegrown travel‑tech social platform with global ambitions, seeing it as part of India’s broader digital rise.
- User‑growth and product narrative:
- Media reports in 2024–25 note that Explurger has gone from 8.5M users in early 2024 to 18M+ by late 2025, with users in more than 75 countries, driven by both domestic travel creators and overseas users.
- The company emphasises that its engagement comes from rewarding offline travel behaviour – people earn status levels (Cobalt, Silver, Gold, Spectra, Prime) and rewards as they explore more, rather than just for doom‑scrolling.
- Positioning as “homegrown innovation”:
Why this PM recognition matters for Explurger
- Credibility boost: Acknowledgement from the Prime Minister at a G20 summit focused heavily on digital public infrastructure and emerging tech gives Explurger a high‑signal endorsement as a serious Indian product in a space dominated by US giants.
- Distribution and partnerships: Such visibility can help the startup in conversations with tourism boards, state governments, airlines and hotel chains that might want to tap Explurger’s travel community and gamified reward layer.
- Investor signalling: With a working product, millions of users, and multiple institutional investors already on board, PM‑level validation may strengthen its narrative as a potential “Made‑in‑India global consumer tech” success story.
Net‑net, Explurger today is a gamified, AI‑powered travel‑social platform with 18M users, $5.5M+ raised, and a growing global footprint—now carrying the added brand halo of direct appreciation from PM Modi on a G20 stage.
