Mumbai-based Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd, an online aggregator of hotels, flights and train bookings, has appointed former TCS executive Indroneel Dutt as chief financial officer, a company statement said.
Dutt will be posted at the company’s headquarters in Mumbai and responsible for revenue streams and optimising cost-efficiencies.
The online travel agency has also hired former Stayzilla executive Ankit Rastogi as vice president of its hotels category. Rastogi, who joined Cleartrip in April, will be based out of Bangalore and spearhead all initiatives related to the hotels business.
“We are looking to scale our operations and expand our market footprint by tapping into the hyperbolic growth trajectory that the hotel category is expected to witness. This requires intelligent products that are omni-present across multiple formats...Building such a product and sustaining it commercially will need deep domain knowledge and hands-on expertise,” Prasad Menon, chief human resource officer at Cleartrip, said in the press note.
A chartered and cost accountant by qualification, Dutt has more than 20 years of experience handling functions such as finance, investment banking, private equity/venture capital, and mergers and acquisitions. In his past stints, he has served at companies such as In Tarvo Technologies, Sonoma Management Partners and eforce Inc.
A computer engineer from NIT Surat, Rastogi has earlier worked at goibibo and Indiahotelreview.com, apart from the now-defunct Stayzilla.
Cleartrip also plans to ramp up technology in areas such as data science, machine learning, and NLP (neuro-linguistic programming). Currently on a hiring spree, it plans to beef up the strength of its tech team by 50%. It will also deploy teams towards seeding new technology platforms such as trust and safety, data platform, and mobile web (progressive web apps), the company stated.
“Product tech talent comprises over 25% of our current employee base in India at present. Increasing the size of this team with around 100 more engineers is a strategic investment that will help us develop cutting-edge tech products,” Menon said.
Founded in 2006 by Stuart Brighton, Hrush Bhatt and Matthew Spacie (not with the company anymore), Cleartrip offers a platform for booking hotels, flights and trains. In 2016, it launched Cleartrip Local, a platform that offers curated activities and experiences. The company, which competes with MakemyTrip and Yatra, has raised over $70 million from Concur Technologies, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DAG Ventures and Gund Investment Corporation.