India’s EaseMyTrip Invests in B2B Travel Portal ETrav Tech

Indian online travel agency EaseMyTrip.com on Monday confirmed an investment in business-to-business (B2B) travel portal ETrav Tech.

The deal, worth INR 330 million ($4 million), sees EaseMyTrip secure a 4.94% stake in the Mumbai-based enterprise.

ETrav Tech specializes in offering travel application programming interfaces (APIs) to businesses, enabling them to access competitive travel deals and content from global travel suppliers. These services include flight APIs, holiday packages, hotel APIs, bus APIs, and visa services.

ETrav Tech also extends its reach internationally with an office in Dubai, as disclosed in EaseMyTrip’s regulatory filing on Sunday.

Through this investment, EaseMyTrip looks to leverage ETrav Tech’s technological prowess and expertise in catering to B2B clientele. According to EaseMyTrip this is expected to boost its service offerings to corporate clients.

“We aim to diversify our portfolio in the non-air segments. After investing in hotels, we now intend to enhance our services for our corporate clientele. The investment with ETrav Tech will be pivotal for this,” said Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder of EaseMyTrip.

An Increasingly Diverse Business

EaseMyTrip has been actively expanding its foothold through acquisitions in various travel segments in recent years.

The company reported a 9.6% increase in consolidated net profit to INR 456 million ($5.5 million) for the period ending December 2023 compared to the corresponding period last year. Moreover, its operating revenue surged by 18% year-on-year to INR 1.61 billion ($19.3 million) in December.

Earlier this year, EaseMyTrip ventured into the insurance sector with the establishment of its subsidiary, EaseMyTrip Insurance Broker, marking a strategic diversification of its service portfolio.

The company looks to tap into the lucrative insurance market by addressing customer needs through specialized products.

“The new venture is expected to solidify EaseMyTrip’s position in the industry and cater to an INR 7.9 trillion market ($95 billion) with EaseMyTrip’s own 20-million userbase,” the company said in a regulatory filing about its entry into the insurance sector.

EaseMyTrip’s Latest Investments

Speaking earlier to Skift, EaseMyTrip co-founder Prashant Pitti had said the company is now looking to grow its non-air business by acquiring companies that are profitable, tech driven, asset-light and disruptive.

In its pursuit of reinforcing non-air business segments, EaseMyTrip acquired controlling stakes in several Indian travel companies last year. This included Guideline Travels, TripShope Travel Technologies, and Dook Travels.

The company also acquired a 55% stake in hotel booking marketplace cheQin, owned by Gleego Innovations, for around $370,000.

In December 2022, the company acquired a 75% stake in Nutana Aviation Capital for around $185,000. Nutana Aviation Capital leases charter aircraft and provides charter services.

Additionally, the company also boosted its presence in the hotel industry by acquiring a non-controlling stake of around 13% in Eco Hotels and Resorts.

In February, EaseMyTrip announced a joint venture investment of up to INR 1 billion ($12 million) in a five-star hotel project in Ayodhya, in collaboration with Jeewani Hospitality. This move aligned with the company’s strategy to broaden its offerings beyond traditional travel services.

The OTA has also partnered with Indian public sector bank Punjab National Bank to launch a co-branded travel credit card, catering to both mass and premium customer segments.

The company was in news earlier this year after it suspended all flight bookings to Maldives following the #BoycottMaldives movement in India fueled by a diplomatic dispute between the two countries.