Paytm's travel marketplace logs more than 1 mn bookings

Mobile wallet major expects to double its growth in next 6 months

Online mobile wallet payments company Paytm registered more than a million flight and bus ticket bookings on its travel marketplace in August. The company expects to double its growth in the travel business over the next six months, Paytm said on Wednesday.

The company hopes to create a cashless travel ecosystem and would soon launch new categories and ancillaries. To fuel this growth, the company will further invest Rs 300 crore in its travel business.

Trying to reinforce its position in the travel space, the One97-owned company is also on the lookout for start-ups who might have innovative offerings in the travel space.

CASHLESS GAINS CURRENCY

• Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s Paytm hopes to create a cashless travel ecosystem & would soon launch new categories and ancillaries
   
• To fuel this growth, the One97-owned mobile wallet major will further invest Rs 300 cr in its travel business

“We are constantly evaluating exciting start-ups that have a very strong team or have built exceptional products in travel domain that significantly enhance customer experience. This helps us address our current and future needs,” Abhishek Rajan, vice-president, Paytm, said.

The company is also planning to ramp up its hotels booking vertical and is building a product for its platform, both from a customer’s and seller’s point of view. The company aims to quickly ramp up the number of hotel properties available on Paytm for booking through partnerships with hotels and aggregators.

The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company said Paytm’s bus tickets business recently managed to break-even.

“The hotels category is expected to break even soon and flight booking has been organically scaling at a 4x month-on-month growth since its launch in May,” the company said.

At present, its travel vertical has over 100 employees based out of Bengaluru and is planning to ramp up across engineering, product and design to reach a headcount of 150 in the next two quarters.

Modelled as a marketplace, Paytm has multiple sellers providing various travel services to customers. This allows the platform to offer diverse selection of products at the most competitive prices. Paytm offers a unique opportunity for travel service providers to gain access to its 130 million strong and growing user base.

The company has a slew of tie-ups with major players in the sector, including IndiGo for air tickets and global distribution system major Amadeus, which enables automated transactions between third parties and travel agencies, in order to provide travel-related services to end-consumers.