MakeMyTrip acquires majority stake in corporate travel management firm Quest2Travel

Online travel services provider MakeMyTrip Ltd (MMT) has acquired a majority stake in Mumbai-based corporate travel management firm Quest2Travel.

In a statement, Deep Kalra, founder and group chief executive of MMT said that the investment will help the company extend its service offerings to large corporates for their travel requirements.

“We have historically focused on providing travel solutions for retail customers and with this investment we are making a decisive foray into providing travel solutions for corporate customers as well,” he added.

Quest2travel.com India Pvt. Ltd, which operates the venture, was founded in 2000 by Abhay Rangnekar. The company is essentially an IATA (International Air Travel Association) certified web based Corporate travel management company that helps customers manage their employee travel procurement in a transparent and secure manner.

The company’s enterprise software platform enables large corporate clients to manage their end-to-end employee travel needs on a real-time basis. Its online booking platform offers an end-to-end service that includes travel procurement, employee travel request approval, corporate policy compliant online booking, invoice generation, expense management, reimbursement and final invoice settlement.  

Tata Motors, Aditya Birla Group, Times Group, HDFC Ergo and Thermax are part of its customer base.

“This partnership combines the best in corporate travel with non-corporate travel. Amongst other benefits, it will help us offer superior service offerings with wider inventory and better pricing for air, hotel bookings and other employee travel services,” Rangnekar, who is also the CEO, stated.

The development comes a couple of days after MMT underwent a significant change in its shareholding pattern. Earlier this week, Chinese travel services company Ctrip.com became its largest shareholder by buying South African technology conglomerate Naspers’ entire stake in the Nasdaq-listed travel portal. 

Separately, MMT's Nasdaq-listed peer Yatra earlier this year received an offer from software firm Ebix to buy out the portal for $336 million. The deal is currently at the due diligence stage.