SpiceJet acqui-hires Ixigo travel tech unit Travenues

Budget airline SpiceJet has acqui-hired Travenues, the airline technology subsidiary of online travel marketplace Ixigo, for an undisclosed amount. 

“As of June 10, 2020, Team Travenues has joined Team SpiceJet, and will continue building best-in-class airline technology, in-house,” the Travenues website shows.

SpiceJet has absorbed the travel technology team, and the airline technology and commerce platform of one-year-old Travenues, Ixigo parent Le Travenues Technology said in a statement on Tuesday.

“This acqui-hire will help SpiceJet strengthen its ecommerce platforms as we continue to innovate across multiple technology areas and achieve our vision of being the worldwide leader in aviation technology,” Ashish Vikram, CTO at SpiceJet, said. 

Bengaluru-based Travenues operates a configurable direct selling platform for airline ecommerce, which includes mobile apps, user experience functions, engagement, cross-selling, payments, ancillaries, personalisation, and artificial intelligence and machine learning-based travel assistants.

In 2019, Ixigo said, Travenues signed its first technology partnership with SpiceJet to digitally transform consumer-facing experiences. 

“We are happy that we were able to incubate a startup and build a next generation platform with a motivated tightly-knit team that can truly disrupt airline direct sales and airline commerce…,” Ixigo co-founder and CTO Rajnish Kumar said.

Earlier this month, Gurugram-based Ixigo rolled back employee salary cuts that were implemented in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also offered employee stock option plans (ESOPs) to all staffers.