India’s Online Travel Leader, MakeMyTrip has acquired Bangalore-based travel planning website Mygola. “The Company (MakeMyTrip) expects that Mygola’s team’s deep understanding of travelers’ planning and in-destination experience preferences will be valuable in strengthening the Company’s proposition in these and related areas of customer engagement,” mentioned MakeMyTrip in its SEC filing.
The acquisition was done through company’s Innovation Fund, that was formed by MakeMyTrip to invest in startup or early-stage startups in the travel technology space.
Mygola, was founded in 2009 by two IIT-Mumbai alumnus Anshuman Bapna and Prateek Sharma. Mygola enables travellers to create custom trips under 15 minutes. The mobile app uses technology to curate content — videos, open/close hours, tips from travellers, panoramic views — all on a massive scale, specific to individual user’s tastes.
The app shows info for 16 cities across the world and has up to 5,000 installs on the Google Playstore.
The acquisition could potentially give MakeMyTrip a greater foothold in the mobile space. According to people familiar with the development, all the employees have been retained and co-founders have started working with the Makemytrip team.
Prior getting acquired, Helion Venture Partners had led a $1.5 Mn round in 2013 for Mygola, which is also an investor in MakeMyTrip; Mygola had also raised $1 Mn from the US-based accelerator 500Startups, Blumberg Capital and a few angel investors.
MyGola’s acquisition is MakeMyTrip’s seventh acquisition overall and third of an Indian company. Founded by Deep Kalra in 2000, MakeMyTrip had earlier this year acquired a minor stake in Bangalore-based digital hotel marketing solutions company Simplotel for an undisclosed amount.
Acquisitions By Makemytrip
Feb 2014: Acquired entire equity interest in EasyToBook.com for around $5 Mn to strengthen its travel technology stack and improve its hotel offerings in Europe.
Nov. 2012: Acquired majority stake in Thailand-based hotels aggregator ITC Group for $3.2 Mn. Also acquired South East Asia-focused Hotel Travel Group for $25 Mn.
Nov. 2011: Acquired Delhi based MyGuestHouse
Aug. 2011: Acquired majority stake of 76.6% for $18.5 Mn in online travel meta search engine iXigo along with SAIF Partners
Feb 2011: Acquired 79% stake in Singapore-based Luxury Tours & Travel Pte Limited (LTT) for around $3 Mn.
According to World Travel and Tourism Council, the contribution of travel and tourism to the global economy is expected to rise to 10.5% by 2025 from 9.8% in 2014, key to this increased contribution is expected strong growth in demand from emerging markets and a rising share of consumer spending on travel and tourism.
