MakeMyTrip Success Story – Planning the Best Trip for You.

MakeMyTrip Success Story – India’s Largest Online Travel Company

Nothing can break the ease and comfort of booking an entire travel ticket from your home. MakeMyTrip is one such company that helps millions of people to buy holidays, book air tickets, book railways tickets, reserve hotels & villas, etc. The company got founded in 2000 and since then it was been no looking back for the company. They have gained many customers and people love their platform for travel-related issues. In this article, let’s have a look at the success story of this amazing company.

MakeMyTrip – Key Points

• Startup Name – MakeMyTrip
• Founders – Deep Kalra, Rajesh Magow, Keyur Joshi, Sachin Bhatia (resigned)
• Founding Year – 2000
• Headquarters – Gurugram, Haryana, India
• Industry – Online travel
• Parent organization – MakeMyTrip (India) Pvt. Ltd.
• Revenue - $486 mn
• Area served – Worldwide
• Number of employees - 3051
• Website – makemytrip.com

MakeMyTrip – Founders

• Deep Kalra – He is the co-founder of MakeMyTrip. This Hyderabad born guy holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and an MBA degree from IIM, Ahmedabad. Under his guidance, the company achieved huge success and he has truly been the guiding light for the company. He stepped down as the CEO of the company from the Group CEO post and resumed responsibilities as an executive chairman.
• Rajesh Magow – He is the co-founder and Group CEO of the company. Magow is a CA by profession and he has served in various leadership positions throughout his career.
• Keyur Joshi – He is the co-founder and COO (Chief Operating Officer), and Strategic Advisor of the company. Joshi holds a bachelor's degree in Chemistry, from Gujarat Univerity and an MBA degree, from City University, Ney Work. He is also a certified pilot.

MakeMyTrip – Brand Name, Logo, and Tagline

• Brand Name – The company’s brand name is exactly what they do in this industry. The name is catchy and easy to remember for the customer as well.
• Logo – The company’s logo is in bright blue and red colour. Both these colours attract human eyes and also it is unforgettable.
• Tagline – The tagline of the company is – Dil Toh Roaming Hai. It focuses on the little desire of a person to fulfil their travelling dreams and live a happy life.

MakeMyTrip – Business Model

• B2C Model - MakeMyTrip offers an amazing B2C (Business to Customer) model to its customers. It lets the users book holiday packages, book air tickets, book hotel accommodation, hire vehicles, buy bus tickets, etc. They also provided various third-party vendor services as well, such as travel insurance, visa processing, etc. Users can easily avail themselves of all these services through its website, app, store, and franchise stores.
• MyBiz - They have also introduced this model to offer travel services to corporate people. MyBiz manages the travel and accommodation of the company's employees and makes it easier and hassle-free for them.

MakeMyTrip – Revenue Model

MakeMyTrip currently earns most of the revenue from hotel & tours bookings and ticketing. The company earns 44% of its revenue from airline ticketing and 56% of the revenue from hotels and packages.

MakeMyTrip is the leading player in the market of domestic flight ticketing with a 25% share.

MakeMyTrip – Funding and Investors

MakeMyTrip has raised total funding of $748 million in over 6 rounds. The funding raised by the company is as follows:

• $10 mn – Series A, Tiger Fund, Sierra Ventures, Helion Venture Partners, May 2005
• $13 mn – Series B, Helion Venture Partners, SAIF Partners, Sierra Ventures, Dec 2006
• $15 mn – Series C, Helion Venture Partners, Tiger Fund, Sierra Ventures, Oct 2007
• $180 mn – Post-IPO Equity, Trip.com, Jan 2016
• $330 mn – Post-IPO Equity, May 2017
• $200 mn – Post-IPO Debt, Feb 2021

MakeMyTrip – Growth

Some of the major growth seen by the company are as follows:

• It has over 14 plus company-owned travel stores in more than 15 cities
• MakeMyTrip also has international offices based in Bangkok, Phuket, Dubai, Ney York, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore
• The company boasts an extraordinary collection with over 50,000 villas and hotels to book from
• It also has more than 30 franchisee-owned stores in over 29 cities.
• MakeMyTrip has its counters in 4 major airports in India.
• The company also claimed by helping their users to get a 100% refund on their cancellation, during the post-pandemic time.

MakeMyTrip – Partnerships

MakeMyTrip patterned with many companies in its 20 plus years of journey. Some of the partnerships of the company are as follows:

• Ministry of Civil Aviation – November 2021
• IndiGo – November 2021
• AmazonPay – November 2021
• Hopper – October 2021

MakeMyTrip – Awards

MakeMyTrip has won several awards in its startup journey. Some of them are as follows:

• Top Agents Award – Singapore airlines, 2010
• Top Passenger Agent Award – Singapore Airlines, 2007
• Top Agent Award – Malaysia Airlines, 2007, 2009, 2010
• Outstanding Performance – Air Canada, 2008
• Achieving Highest Domestic Passenger Sales – Indian Airlines, 2006
• Outstanding Performance – Lufthansa, 2006
• Award of Excellence – Jet Airways, 2005
• Outstanding Performance – Cathay Pacific, 2007, 2009
• All India Top ten Agent Award – Air Mauritius – 2006, 2007

MakeMyTrip – Competitors

MakeMyTrip is one of the leading companies in this industry but it still has to face competition. There are several competitors in the market that are performing well on various levels. Some of its competitors are as follows:

• Yatra
• Expedia
• Oyo
• Booking.com
• Cleartrip
• Travelguru
• EaseMyTrip

MakeMyTrip – Challenges

Some of the major challenges faced by the company are as follows:

• Hard to find investors – In early 2001, it was difficult for the company to sustain itself. They couldn’t find investors due to the 9/11 attacks, venture capital’s exit from India, the meltdown of dot com. But the company came out of this difficult time and now they are doing much better.
• Competitors – It is something that you will find in every industry. MakeMyTrip however, holds the largest market share in the Indian market but the company still has a long way to go to overshadow its competitors.
• Pandemic – the current COVID-19 pandemic has been tough for almost all industries. The travel & tourism industry was the most hit due to this long pandemic. Everything was completely shut down and the whole world was on lockdown. It was a hard time for everyone, but MakeMyTrip survived this tough time and also offered various support to its customers.

MakeMyTrip – Future Plans

Some of the plans of the company are as follows:

• MakeMyTrip wants to increase the number of its franchisee-owned stories in the number of cities.
• They are also planning to open their counters in other major airports in the country.
• They want to increase their customer satisfaction to a much higher percentage.
• The company wants to increase their collection of hotels and villas booking.
• MakeMyTrip wants to earn more revenue from airline ticketing.
• They are also planning to open their international offices in more foreign countries.