It’s show time (as well as consolidation time) in the online Travel space and here is the current roundup:
TravelGuru to acquire Desiya (reports vccircle)
Gurgaon-based Desiya was founded in early 2005, and currently employs about 50 people. It only deals in online hotel booking, and is said to be having a network of 3,300 hotels. Desiya has kept low profile in terms of it’s consumer services and has instead licensed it’s content to portals like Travelguru, Indiatimes and Cleartrip.
MakeMyTrip raises $15 million in Series C funds
MakeMyTrip (MMT) closed Series C investment of $15 million from Tiger Fund and the three existing venture capital investors – SAIF Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Sierra Ventures. MMT plans to invest around $5 million (approximately Rs 20 crore) over the next twelve months, to expand both its US and Indian operations (BS)
MMT’s funding story so far:
- MMT has raised $1 mn in the seed round (eVentures),
- $10 million in Series A (SAIF partners),
- $13 million in Series B (SAIF Partners, Helion and Sierra).
- MMT closed Series C investment of $15 million from Tiger Fund and the three existing venture capital investors – SAIF Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Sierra Ventures.
MMT plans IPO by 2009.
Yatra plans IPO
Yatra plans IPO by April, 2008 and is planning to invest Rs. 20 million to open three retail outlets in the next 12 months.
tags: travelguru, desiya, makemytrip, yatra
Yatra has tied up with Global Financial Services provider and World’s First Adopter of ATM: Barclays, which increases their[yatra] level of Distribution and Presence of Yatra.
IPO for Yatra has a Meaning.
How can these startups plan IPOs ??? Are they running into profits ?? If so then why so much funding ??? and Make My trip has been in the industry for so many years why do they still need funding?? That is not good sign .. so how come these guys are planning IPOs ??
@Yatish
Profitability is not a pre condition to go public . Amazon became Profitable 3-4 year after IPO . these player need funding /Investment because
#1 )market has too many player and only differentiator is volume and economy of scale . now EoS require $$$ , hense funding /IPO
2) Initial investor might want to exit the fund . and promoter want to retain more ownership /control in such a case IPO Is the only way . Its a good sign .
Regarding MMT , they are one of the very few tightly run ship in dotcom . this is there time and they can raise money on their terms . Good for them .
so relax and enjoy trust me soon you will find a good deal on Air Ticket coming your way .
Great response Prashant. You summed it very well!
my 1 cent: lets not forget that MMT almost created the industry and had to spend huge amount of mkting $s.. and expansion to mid-tier cities/outside India is the way to go!
It is heartening to know that this time round, the money plans to go toward operations – new offices, spruce up tech backbone etc, rather than just show up ads on TVs.
@Prashant, @Ashish: The thing I like about MMT is that they offer holiday packages – not just online ticketing, which is a great value added service. TravelGuru will now be in a position to do the same (I hope they do).
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Nice useful information..