Skift Take
For MakeMyTrip, the acquisition is a calculated bet on the future of India’s corporate travel market — a bet that could pay off handsomely as the market doubles by 2030.
Online travel company MakeMyTrip on Monday announced its acquisition of expense management platform Happay from Indian fintech company CRED. The deal would allow MakeMyTrip to deepen its foothold in the expanding corporate travel market.
Happay’s team would “continue to seamlessly support the existing client base while working in close partnership with MakeMyTrip’s corporate travel services team,” MakeMyTrip said in a statement.
MakeMyTrip did not disclose the financial terms; Cred acquired Happay in a $180 million deal in 2021.
Happay was founded in 2012 and provides travel and expense management software for corporates. In May 2023, the company underwent a restructuring that led to an almost 35% reduction in its workforce.
Happay recently expanded its offerings by launching a B2B payments solution on Bharat Connect, developed in collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India, an Indian public sector company that operates retail payments and settlement systems in the country.
Corporate Travel
MakeMyTrip has been focusing in the Indian corporate travel ecosystem, and its corporate offerings, myBiz and Quest2Travel, have demonstrated strong growth in recent years.
“The acquisition of Happay’s brand and expense management platform is a natural next step in our strategy to lead this space,” said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip.
Happay brings over 900 corporate clients. MakeMyTrip already serves over 59,000 SME clients through myBiz and 462 large corporates via Quest2Travel.
Magow told Skift that limited deployment of technology in the corporate segment had kept MakeMyTrip from focusing on it earlier.
“We always felt there was less innovation in this space and we should wait for our opportunity,” he had said.
Resurgence of India’s Business Travel Market
India’s business travel market has been rebounding strongly post-pandemic. India is the ninth-largest market globally for business travel expenditure and the fourth-largest in the Asia Pacific region.
The Global Business Travel Association projects India’s corporate travel spending to reach $38 billion this year with projected full recovery to pre-2019 spending levels by 2025.
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a critical driver of corporate travel, account for 30% of this market, according to Deloitte India.
Speaking at the Skift India Podcast recently, Avinash Chandani, partner at Deloitte India, said initiatives like “Make in India” and export incentives are fueling increased demand for SME travel.
India’s corporate travel market is currently valued at $10.6 billion, accounting for 20% of the country’s overall travel market. Improved infrastructure and economic growth are expected to drive its growth to $20 billion by 2030.
Competition Heats Up
MakeMyTrip isn’t alone in chasing growth in corporate travel. Rival Yatra recently acquired Globe Travels, to further boost its own position in this space. The competition reflects the overall momentum in the corporate travel market, which is becoming a critical battleground for travel tech companies.
At its latest earnings call, Yatra CEO Dhruv Shringi acknowledged challenges in the consumer segment but highlighted the strong momentum driving Yatra’s corporate travel business.
Speaking at the latest earnings call, Magow said MakeMyTrip has completed over 60 integrations with travel and expense management solution partners like Darwinbox, Zoho, and FastCollab.
“We also went live with complete self-serve human resource management software integrations, connecting more than 200 organizations through the connector to enable better management of travel expenses,” Magow said.
