MakeMyTrip Ltd said on Tuesday it has acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based online corporate travel management company Quest 2 Travel.com India Pvt. Ltd, adding to a slew of strategic bets it has made in the past years to expand its offerings.
“With this investment, we are making a decisive foray into providing travel solutions for corporate customers as well,” said Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip founder and group CEO, in a statement. MakeMyTrip has historically focused on providing travel solutions for retail customers, he added.
Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip didn’t disclose financial details of the transaction.
Kalra said this investment will help MakeMyTrip extend its service offerings to large companies for their travel requirements while helping Quest2Travel benefit from the travel expertise and depth of supplier relationships that MakeMyTrip has forged over the years.
Abhay Rangnekar, founder and CEO of Quest2Travel, said the investment will allow the company to offer wider inventory and better pricing for air, hotel bookings and other employee travel services.
Founded in 2000, Quest2Travel's online booking platform offers the entire workflow of travel procurement, including an employee’s travel request approval, corporate policy compliant online booking, invoice generation, expense management, reimbursement and final invoice settlement. Its clients include Tata Motors, Aditya Birla Group, Times Group, HDFC Ergo and Thermax.
Strategic bets
MakeMyTrip's last strategic bet involved an investment in travel-focused tech startup Bitla Software Pvt. Ltd in July last year.
Besides, it has invested in travel-tech startup Simplotel, travel planning website Inspirock, travel booking startup GoFro, vacation planning website HolidayIQ, online travel meta search engine iXiGO, besides acquiring the assets of travel planning website Mygola.com.
The company has also done a handful of deals in the international market including investments in Thailand-based hotels aggregator ITC Group, South East Asia-focused Hotel Travel Group, Amsterdam-based EasyToBook.com, and Singapore-based Luxury Tours & Travel Pte Limited.
Notably, in late 2016, in the biggest-ever consolidation move in the online travel services sector in India, MakeMyTrip agreed to buy Ibibo Group, co-owned by South African technology group Naspers Ltd and Chinese investment firm Tencent, in a stock deal.
Last week, Naspers fully exited MakeMyTrip by selling its stake to Chinese travel services provider Ctrip.com International Ltd.