MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip.com

Traded as	NASDAQ: MMYT
Industry	Online travel
Founded	2000
Founder	Deep Kalra
Headquarters	Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Products	Booking flights, hotels, holidays, buses, trains and cars
Revenue	US$255.37 Million (2013-14)
Number of employees	1712 (March 2014)[1]
Website	MakeMyTrip.com

Makemytrip Inc. is an Indian online travel company, founded by Deep Kalra in 2000. Headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, the company provides online travel services including flight tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets, etc. The company has been recognized as one of India's best travel portals.^[2] In addition to a full-service online portal, the company also operates through 65 retail stores^[3] across 50 cities in India, along with international offices in New York City and Sydney.^[4]

The company holds close to 25% market share of the OTA hotel booking segment.^[5]

History

MakeMyTrip was founded by Deep Kalra, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.^[6] Prior to setting up MakeMyTrip, Deep had worked with GE Capital as vice president of business development (retail), as well as serving stints with ABN AMRO Bank and AMF Bowlinghai.

MakeMyTrip was launched in the US market^[7] in 2000 to cater to the overseas Indian community for their US-to-India travel needs. The founding team consisted of Deep Kalra, Keyur Joshi^[8] (Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer), Rajesh Magow^[9](Co-Founder & CEO - India, formerly Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer) and Sachin Bhatia (ex-Chief Marketing Officer). After serving a long tenure of 10 years, since the company's inception, Sachin Bhatia^[10] quit MakeMyTrip as an active member and decided to work as an independent advisor and a prime shareholder in the company. In August 2013, the company announced the appointment of Rajesh Magow as CEO – India and Mohit Kabra (previously Senior Vice President – Finance, Administration and Legal) as the Chief Financial Officer.^[11]

With the success of IRCTC's (Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation) online business model which enabled the Indian traveller to purchase railway tickets^[12] on the Internet, things started to look brighter for the travel market in India. This was also the time when low-cost carriers entered the Indian aviation space. MakeMyTrip started its Indian operations in September 2005,^[13] offering online flight tickets to Indian travellers. The company also started to focus on non-air businesses like holiday packages and hotel bookings. On 13 August 2010, MakeMyTrip was listed on the NASDAQ^[14] and went public, making a debut in the US market.

In 2011, the company strengthened focus on the mobile route by creating several travel-related Apps^[15] for all types of mobile devices (smartphones and basic cellphones). In the same year, MakeMyTrip also made three acquisitions,^[16] namely, Luxury Tours and Travel Private Limited (Singapore), Le Travenues Technology Private Limited (Gurgaon, India) and My Guest House Accommodation (New Delhi, India). MakeMyTrip's other acquisitions include travel operators like ITC Group and Hotel Travel Group to enter new markets in the South-East Asian region in the year 2012. In June 2015, MakeMyTrip invested $3 million in Inspirock, a vacation itinerary planning website to improve trip planner.^[17]

In February 2014, MakeMyTrip acquired EasyToBook, an Amsterdam-based hotel booking portal to strengthen its online hotel bookings segment, and also target inbound customers traveling to Asia. In September 2014, MakeMyTrip instituted a $15 million innovation fund to support early stage companies in the travel space.

MakeMyTrip acquired Mygola, a travel planning website in April 2015. The acquisition was done through the innovation fund and as part of the acquisition all employees of MyGola were absorbed into the MakeMyTrip team.^[18]

In July 2015, MakeMyTrip invested in travel information and hotel review portal, HolidayIQ to pick up 28% stake in the company.^[19] In the same month, it also invested $5 million in Bona Vita Technologies, a start-up which plans to utilize the funds to build innovative products in the travel industry.^[20]

In November 2015, MakeMyTrip launched a new offering called Value+, in the quality budget hotels category.^[21]

In 2016, a Chinese travel booking giant Ctrip agreed to invest $180 million to MakeMyTrip.^[22]

Mergers, Acquisitions and Investments

Makemytrip and Ibibo Merger

Makemytrip and Ibibo have agreed to merge. This merger is through in a stock transaction, representing the coming together of India’s largest travel booking portals.^[31] The deal that may be valued at $1.8-2 billion, In which Makemytrip will acquire rival ibibo in what has been pegged as the biggest acquisition in India's online travel space. At the closing, MMYT shareholders will own 60% whereas ibibo shareholders will get a 40% stake, making Naspers and Tencent the single largest shareholder in MakeMyTrip.^[32]

Likely holdings

Government of India has announced its intention to dilute the stake level to even below 50%. Months of negotiations have prepared the associated banks for equity dilution, although the finance ministry still has to accept the proposal.^[33]

Products and services

• Flights - MakeMyTrip provides flight tickets for travel in all major domestic, international as well as low-cost carriers operating in India. It caters to travellers for both domestic and international travel from India. Apart from this, it caters to inbound travel to India from countries like US, Canada, Singapore and UAE.
• Rail and Bus tickets - MakeMyTrip sells online rail ticket to its customers offering features like return tickets with single payment option, flexi-search and automatic alerts and updates on the availability of tickets. It also offers bus tickets across different categories like Volvo, Air Conditioned, Non Air Conditioned, Deluxe, Semi-Deluxe and Sleeper vehicles.
• Cab Service - MakeMyTrip introduced car hire services on its Indian website in May 2010. It currently provides car hire services in conjunction with holiday package bookings.
• Hotels and Packages (Holidays) - The company offers hotel reservations in India and international cities alike. There are over 13,000 hotels and guesthouses in India that can be searched and compared online on the MakeMyTrip website. The hotels range from luxury to budget accommodations. In November 2012, MakeMyTrip acquired My Guest House Accommodation to increase the overall inventory for budget rooms and service apartments. MakeMyTrip also offers a wide selection of hotels outside India. Through the acquisition of easytobook.com, MakeMyTrip now offers access to more than 184,000 hotels outside India. MakeMyTrip also offers group and customised holiday packages for popular domestic and international destinations.
• Mobile Solutions - In 2012, MakeMyTrip launched travel mobile applications (Apps) for Windows Phone, iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices. The app offers services like flight and bus bookings, hotel reservations and holiday packages. It also caters to other post-purchase requirements like generating e-tickets, making cancellations, tracking status of refunds and other travel alerts. The travel itineraries available on the Apps can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.
• Route Planner - Makemytrip route planner section provides all basic required information on more than 1 Million routes in India.^[34]
• Forex - MakeMyTrip offers its customers a complete range of forex products including foreign currency notes, forex travel cards, traveler's cheques, demand drafts and international wire transfers in collaboration with BookMyForex^[35]

Work culture

The company has been consistently ranked among the Top 10 "Great Places to Work for in India" by the Great Place to Work (GPTW) Institute and The Economic Times, for four years in a row (2010 to 2013).^[36]

Awards and recognition

References

External links

• Official website