This Assam-built tourism startup is rethinking how the Northeast is found

The Northeast has all the time been a vacation spot of tales — tribal festivals, hidden valleys, archaeological websites, and cultures layered over centuries. But for travellers, discovering a approach in has typically meant piecing collectively scattered data or counting on operators with little native grounding. FinderBridge Tourism emerged to vary that, positioning itself not simply as a journey organizer however as a tourism intelligence platform rooted in Assam.

Early beginnings

Founder and CEO Higmanshu Baruah started the journey in 2016–17, whereas nonetheless in his second yr of engineering. “I considered creating a web site that provided full details about Northeast India,” he recollects. “Later, it reworked right into a full‑fledged tourism organisation.”

The concept shortly gained traction. “After we launched the web site on social media, individuals instantly recognised that one thing known as FinderBridge had began,” he says. “Via phrase of mouth and references, we started receiving queries from travellers desperate to discover Northeast India. Our first journey led to the subsequent, then the subsequent, and that momentum has continued until at the moment.”

From the outset, Higmanshu was clear that FinderBridge wouldn’t be simply one other journey operator. “No matter I constructed, I needed it to be distinctive; one thing really completely different that challenges the class,” he says.

Offbeat experiences

FinderBridge carved a distinct segment by providing journeys that mainstream operators not often touched. “We provide journeys to the far corners of Northeast India, which most others don’t present,” Higmanshu explains.

These embrace images excursions, cultural immersions, tribal heritage trails, and archaeology journeys. “FinderBridge is not only a journey reserving platform,” he says. “It’s a tourism intelligence and expertise platform the place we innovate in methods that may be utilized to the Northeast area.”

An important increase got here final yr when FinderBridge obtained a Rs 10 lakh scale‑up grant from the Assam authorities. “I used to be working solely on the journey phase, however I had plenty of concepts for various areas of the tourism business,” Higmanshu says. “At the moment, I lacked the funds to pursue them.”

The grant allowed him to develop into new verticals. “We began vacation spot weddings, tourism advertising, and journey content material,” he shares. “These are the brand new channels we launched after receiving the grant, which was a really massive step for us.”

Street forward

At present, FinderBridge affords curated experiences throughout all eight Northeastern states, from images excursions to cultural festivals. Its ambition is to place the Northeast as a worldwide journey vacation spot, whereas making certain that native communities profit from tourism.

For Higmanshu Baruah, the journey from a pupil‑led startup to a funded tourism platform is proof that Assam’s startup ecosystem can nurture concepts rooted within the area’s identification. And as FinderBridge expands into weddings, advertising, and content material, it continues to indicate how innovation in tourism will be each commercially viable and culturally significant.

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