MakeMyTrip acquires stake in HolidayIQ for $15 mn

Online travel company MakeMyTrip on Wednesday said it has acquired a minority stake in holiday recommendation engine HolidayIQ for $15 million.

"HolidayIQ operates in a very exciting space in the Indian online travel market. Their pace and appetite for innovation matches ours, and we see great synergy in our focus on hotels and mobile. The opportunity to drive scale jointly is fairly significant," MakeMyTrip founder and CEO Deep Kalra said in a statement.

The transaction will empower both companies to swiftly scale up hotel content and reviews, the statement added.

HolidayIQ plans to utilise the fund for fortifying content, mobile and product innovation.

HolidayIQ currently has a million holiday reviews from Indian customers, the statement added.

"Today we power millions of travellers every month in making smarter travel decisions based on reviews and insights from other Indian travellers," HolidayIQ founder and CEO Hari Nair said in the statement.

HolidayIQ lists nearly 2,000 tourism destinations and 50,000-plus accommodation options in India through its 1,600 partnerships encompassing online travel agencies like MakeMyTrip, Yatra.com and Expedia and offline players like Thomas Cook and SOTC.