MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip was incorporated in 2000 by Deep Kalra, an ex-AMF Bowling and GE Capital executive who returned to India after business school. The company launched as an online travel portal focused on the US-India diaspora market, a niche it still dominates. Public since its 2010 NASDAQ listing, the firm survived brutal price wars with competitors like Yatra and Cleartrip, eventually consolidating its position through the landmark acquisition of the Ibibo Group from Naspers and Tencent in 2017. The combined entity now holds the Goibibo and redBus brands, giving it an estimated 60–70% market share in India's online travel sector, per industry estimates reported in 2023. The company's deployment strategy revolves around three interconnected verticals: air ticketing, hotels and packages, and bus ticketing via its redBus subsidiary. Capital is primarily allocated to technology stack improvements, brand marketing, and strategic M&A. The 2017 Ibibo merger was a defining capital event — a stock-for-stock deal that brought in Ctrip (now Trip.com Group) as a strategic backer alongside existing investors. MakeMyTrip has also pursued bolt-on acquisitions in the B2B travel space and owns stakes in several travel-service startups. Geographic focus remains squarely on India and the Indian traveler abroad, with revenue booked across North America, the UAE, and Southeast Asia to capture diaspora traffic. The firm maintains offices in Gurugram, New York, and Dubai. As of March 2023, the company reported over 7,000 global employees, per its annual filing. While not a conventional asset manager, MakeMyTrip's corporate development arm acts as a strategic investment vehicle — deploying balance-sheet capital into travel-tech companies and loyalty-program infrastructure. A notable recent operational event: the company reported its first full-year GAAP profitability in May 2023, hitting a net profit of $147 million on revenues of $593 million (per MakeMyTrip's FY23 annual report), marking a structural inflection point after years of reinvestment-led losses. The structural differentiator is the company's dual-listing and shareholder base. Unlike most Indian internet companies that retreat to local exchanges, MakeMyTrip remains NASDAQ-listed, giving it access to global equity markets and a shareholder register that includes Trip.com Group. This public-market discipline — combined with control of three of India's top four travel brands — creates a portfolio-like moat. The three co-founders still hold significant operational and board influence, maintaining an unusually stable executive structure for a 24-year-old consumer internet company operating in a high-churn sector.