Atlys is a visa processing startup that lets travellers discover, apply for, and manage visas digitally, and it has now raised $36 million in Series C funding. The pitch is simple: getting a visa is still weirdly manual, slow, and stressful even though almost every other part of travel has gone online. Founded in 2021 by Mohak Nahta, Atlys plans to use the fresh capital to expand globally and push deeper into AI across the full visa journey.
That matters because Atlys isn’t selling a dreamy travel app. It’s trying to clean up one of the ugliest parts of international mobility.
The company is now running at more than 700,000 visas annually and has grown 11x since its 2024 Series B. Since that last round, it has processed nearly 450,000 visas. Markets including the UAE, the US, the UK, and Australia now make up almost half of the business.
What is Atlys and how does this visa processing startup work?
Atlys takes the standard visa workflow — reading country rules, gathering documents, filling forms, chasing timelines, and wondering if you missed something — and turns it into a guided digital flow. On its enterprise product, users answer a few prompts and upload documents once. The platform then auto-fills applications, stores reusable files, and generates a real-time risk report before submission. It also handles extras like itineraries and cover letters. Hotel and flight documents are included too, along with secure passport logistics in some cases.
A lot of the value is in the small stuff people hate. Atlys says its system can reuse stored documents and support bulk applications. It also integrates with HR systems so business travellers don’t have to chase payslips or company letters every single time. For travel agents, it supports group uploads and a single dashboard for managing large batches of applicants.
Then there’s the AI layer. Atlys has rolled out tools for visa-photo correction and passport-scan quality checks. It also offers pre-qualification across 100+ visa types, and a support bot called BOLO that already handles 38% of customer interactions while cutting resolution time to 3.4 minutes. Another feature gives applicants real-time guidance on exact document requirements and timelines based on their profile instead of dumping them into generic FAQ hell.
That’s the real before-and-after here. The old model is embassy websites, opaque agents, and repeated uploads. The Atlys model is closer to a consumer software product — faster intake, live tracking, prediction, and a cleaner interface. But it’s still bound by government rules, appointment availability, and final visa decisions, so software can reduce friction without fully removing the state from the loop.
Who founded Atlys and why did they start it?
The founding story
Atlys was founded in 2021 by Mohak Nahta, who still runs the company as CEO. His starting point was pretty personal: he’s said the visa process felt tedious, uncertain, and not at all traveller-friendly, especially for people carrying passports that don’t open doors as easily as American or European ones. That frustration became the company’s core thesis — visa access shouldn’t depend on how good you are at bureaucracy.
Nahta has framed the company in broader terms too. In the latest funding announcement, he said Atlys wants to “remove the barriers that prevent people from exploring the world” and argued that passport strength shouldn’t decide someone’s ability to travel.
Why Mohak Nahta made sense for this problem
He wasn’t coming at it as a travel agent. Nahta previously worked at Pinterest in San Francisco as an engineer, which shows up clearly in the product-first shape of Atlys. He’s also a Carnegie Mellon graduate. The company’s bias toward automation, prediction, and workflow design doesn’t feel accidental.
By early 2025, the company had moved beyond direct-to-consumer visa applications into B2B services and a government-facing product called Skylane, which digitises backend visa systems and builds structured risk profiles for consular review. That expansion suggests Nahta isn’t just fixing a user interface problem — he’s trying to own more of the underlying visa infrastructure stack.
Traction, funding history, and what investors are buying
Susquehanna Asia VC led this Series C. Existing backers Elevation Capital, Long Journey Ventures, and Peak XV Partners also participated, while MakeMyTrip came in as a new investor. Before this, Atlys raised a Series B in 2024 led by Peak XV Partners and Elevation Capital, a Series A in 2023 led by the same two firms, a 2021 seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz, and an earlier pre-seed round led by South Park Commons.
The company currently processes visas for 120+ destinations. And the recent growth numbers are sharp enough to get attention: a 700,000+ annual visa run rate and 11x growth since the Series B. It has also processed nearly 450,000 visas since that last round. The international mix matters too. Almost half the business now comes from markets outside India, including the UAE, US, UK, and Australia.
How does this visa processing startup compare with VFS and agents?
Atlys isn’t really competing against one startup. It’s competing against an entire old stack.
At the top of that stack are giant outsourcing firms like VFS Global, which operates in 166 countries and has processed more than 528 million transactions since 2001. Beneath that are companies such as BLS International and digital visa intermediaries like VisaHQ or iVisa. Then there’s the long tail of offline travel agents who still run applications through phone calls, PDFs, courier packets, and spreadsheet tracking.
That’s why Atlys’s pitch feels different. VFS and similar firms are built around government contracts, application centres, and compliance-heavy logistics. Atlys is built like a consumer product first. It focuses on faster form filling and reusable documents. ETA prediction, approval-probability checks, better support, and cleaner digital onboarding are part of the pitch too. In plain English: incumbents help governments process volume, while Atlys is trying to make the applicant experience feel less punishing.
There’s also a speed angle. Atlys has said parts of its platform can cut application time to under 5 minutes for some flows, and its government-facing Skylane system is aimed at shrinking approval windows from days to hours. Investors are likely backing that wedge — software on top of a massive, ugly, operational market that has historically rewarded scale more than user experience.
Why does Atlys’ $36 million round matter?
Because this round isn’t just growth capital. It’s product capital.
Atlys says the money will go toward entering new international markets and accelerating its AI roadmap across the entire visa lifecycle — from document verification and eligibility assessment to real-time traveller support. The company is betting better automation can do more than cut costs. It can improve approval outcomes, reduce drop-offs, and make timelines feel less random for travellers.
MakeMyTrip joining the cap table stands out too. A travel platform investing in visa infrastructure makes strategic sense — visas are often the first hard blocker in international travel, especially for Indian travellers. If Atlys becomes the default visa layer sitting underneath trip planning, that’s a stronger business than being “just an app for forms.”
Susquehanna Asia VC’s involvement also says something about investor appetite here. This isn’t a flashy market on the surface. It’s paperwork. But it’s also recurring, global, and deeply fragmented. If Atlys keeps automating the messy middle while expanding its reach, this round could mark the point where it stops looking like a niche travel utility and starts looking more like mobility infrastructure.
How big is the digital visa market in 2026?
The macro timing is pretty friendly.
UN Tourism said international tourist arrivals reached 1.4 billion in 2024, up 11% from 2023 and back to 99% of pre-pandemic levels. More travel means more visa demand.
There’s also a structural digitisation trend underneath that rebound. Nahta said in 2023 that more than 60% of countries had already moved to e-visa systems, and he expected almost every country Indians travel to over the next five years to adopt e-visas. That doesn’t mean the process gets simple by itself. It means the paperwork moves online — which often creates a new kind of confusion that software companies like Atlys can turn into a cleaner experience.
Market researchers estimate the global visa outsourcing services market was worth about $2.97 billion in 2024 and could reach roughly $5.49 billion by 2031. VFS still dominates much of the category, which tells you two things at once: the incumbents are huge, and there’s still room for challengers that come in through software, speed, and consumer UX instead of just physical centers and government contracts.
Atlys now has the capital to test whether that thesis holds across geographies, not just within one fast-growing traveler base.
Atlys looks like more than another visa processing startup chasing a travel rebound. It’s betting that visas — boring, bureaucratic, and deeply hated — can become a software category people actually choose. The next milestone isn’t just growth. It’s whether this new funding turns Atlys from a strong application layer into something governments, travel platforms, and enterprises can’t easily route around.
Read how BambooBox raised $6.6 million in funding led by Peak XV Surge and why its AI-powered ABM platform is standing out to enterprise buyers and investors.
FAQ
What funding did Atlys raise?
Atlys raised $36 million in a Series C round. Susquehanna Asia VC led the deal, existing investors Elevation Capital, Long Journey Ventures, and Peak XV Partners joined in, and MakeMyTrip came on board as a new investor.
How does Atlys work for travellers?
Atlys turns visa applications into a guided digital workflow. Users upload documents, get forms auto-filled, receive document guidance and timing estimates, and can track application status live. The company has also added AI features for passport scans, visa photos, and customer support.
Who is Mohak Nahta, the founder of Atlys?
Mohak Nahta founded Atlys in 2021 and serves as CEO. Before starting the company, he worked as an engineer at Pinterest in San Francisco after graduating from Carnegie Mellon, and he built Atlys after dealing with the friction of visa applications himself.
What market category is Atlys in?
Atlys sits in digital visa processing and visa outsourcing, with overlap across travel tech, mobility infrastructure, and enterprise travel operations. That category is growing alongside the rebound in global travel and the shift toward e-visas, with the wider visa outsourcing market estimated at nearly $3 billion in 2024.
