Ebix, a US-based software firm has taken over Yatra, an Indian online travel company, based out of Gurugram, through a share merger process which values the entire transaction at $337.8 million.
“Transaction will create India’s largest and most profitable travel services company and a leading online travel platform poised to capture significant international growth opportunities,” Ebix said.
Yatra was founded by Dhruv Shringi, Manish Amain, and Sabina Chopra in August 2006. The company offers a wide range of services like information, pricing, availability, and booking facility for domestic and international air travel, domestic and international hotel bookings, holiday packages, buses, trains, in city activities, inter-city and point-to-point cabs, homestays and cruises.
The travel company counts InnoVen Capital, Chiratae Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and Valiant Capital Partners, among its investors.
“The acquisition of Yatra will lend itself to significant synergies and the emergence of EbixCash as India’s largest and most profitable travel services company, besides being the largest enterprise financial exchange in the country,” Robin Raina, CEO, President, Ebix.
Dhruv Shringi, Co-founder and CEO of Yatra, said, “Becoming a part of Ebix’s EbixCash travel portfolio will enable us to continue on that path. As part of a larger diversified organisation with the necessary scale and resources to be a leader in today’s dynamic travel marketplace, we will provide more options and an enhanced experience for our joint customers, and will be an even stronger partner to the airline, hotel, car rental and other businesses we work with.”
After the acquisition, Yatra will put up a strong competition against market leader MakeMyTrip, which consolidated its grip on the online travel and booking market in India through its acquisition of Ibibo in 2016.
Yatra reported a revenue of $31.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2018 and has over 800 corporate clients.
With 50-plus offices across six continents, Ebix provides on-demand software and e-commerce services to insurance, financial, healthcare and e-learning industries. After the acquisition, Yatra will become part of Ebix’s EbixCash, its travel portfolio, which also includes Via and Mumbai-based Mercury, and will continue to serve customers under the Yatra brand.
The combined Yatra-Ebix entity will leverage Yatra’s large and loyal existing customer base, comprehensive service offering, and multi-channel platform to take advantage of the dynamic and growing multibillion-dollar opportunity in India, a company statement said.
Some of the well known travel startups includes MakeMyTrip, Ibibo, StayZilla, Treebo, etc.