New Delhi-based travel portal Makemytrip.com Pvt. Ltd has got $15 million (Rs59.4 crore) in the third round of funding from US-based hedge fund Tiger Fund and existing investors Softbank Asia Infrastructure Fund (SAIF) Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Sierra Ventures.The company has plans for an IPO (initial public offering) by 2009 and says its latest investor brings added value to the table, specifically if it decides to list on the US bourses.
The online travel sector in India has attracted venture capital investment of close to $80 million in the last two years. But this will be the first IPO by a local Internet firm in this space.New Delhi-based Info Edge (India) Ltd, which owns job portal Naukri.com and matrimonials site Jeevansaathi.com, listed successfully on the domestic bourses last year, raising Rs174 crore. Info Edge managing director and CEO Sanjeev Bikhchandani is also on the board of Makemytrip.com.
The fresh capital will be used for technology investments and to expand the company’s offline presence across the country. To supplement its online booking channels, the travel site has recently set up retail booking offices in metros such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.It will open offices in other tier I cities this fiscal.
Makemytrip makes money from commissions on online travel bookings from its operations in India and the US. Of its $22 million commission revenue, close to $16 million comes from its India business.Set up in 2000 to offer online travel bookings for the niche India-US non-resident Indian market, the company began catering to the local market only in 2005.
Read more in The Livemint article.
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