MakeMyTrip announces $15 million innovation fund

MakeMyTrip Limited (MMYT) announced the institution of a $15 million Innovation Fund to support early stage companies in the Travel space. The fund will focus on start-ups in Travel technology with a special focus on Mobile and IP based companies.

Speaking on this initiative, Deep Kalra, Founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip.com said, “We’ve agreed to create a fund of $15 million, which is 10% of cash on our balance sheet, to be focused on young and new ventures in the travel technology space for our market. This is an additional prong of our inorganic growth strategy by pursuing M&A opportunities in the Travel Technology space. We intend to purposefully go out and look for such companies and take early stage positions.”

The Board of MMYT has approved the formation of an Investment Committee to deploy the funds as per its discretion in various startups and mid-size companies in travel & tourism sector, or technology/ mobile companies powering this sector. The committee comprises of 6 directors including the Founder Deep Kalra and Co-Founders Rajesh Magow and Keyur Joshi.

MakeMyTrip Limited is the parent company of MakeMyTrip (India) Private Limited, India’s largest online travel company, MakeMyTrip Inc. (USA), MakeMyTrip FZ LLC (UAE), Luxury Tours & Travel Pte Ltd (Singapore), Luxury Tours (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, the Hotel Travel Group (Thailand), the ITC Group (Thailand) and the Easytobook Group (Netherlands).