MakeMyTrip charts global expansion route, boosts corporate travel focus

Cofounder says growth driven by three engines: Customers, artificial intelligence, and supply

India’s largest online travel aggregator, MakeMyTrip, is sharply expanding its footprint in the corporate travel segment while reinforcing a long-term strategy centred on technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and regional dominance.

 

With a market capitalisation of over $9.8 billion, powered by a profit-making business, the company is pushing its brand into newer markets such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while keeping its door open for future fundraising opportunities.

 

“Our grand objective is to become a one-stop shop for every conceivable need of the Indian traveller. Our recent launches — tours, attractions, and cruises — along with established services like visas and foreign exchange, are all deliberate steps towards this goal,” Rajesh Magow, cofounder and group chief executive officer (CEO) of MakeMyTrip, told Business Standard in an exclusive interaction.

 

“To propel growth, one of our key focuses now is geo-expansion. After entering the UAE, we want to expand into Saudi Arabia. We have also taken our bus booking platform, RedBus, to eight countries, and markets like Singapore and Malaysia are performing very well for us,” he added.

 

The company’s business-to-business segment, once a small slice of its business, is now growing at 40 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), powered by myBiz, which targets small and midsized enterprises, and Quest2Travel, which focuses on large corporates.

 

The acquisition of expense management platform Happay in November 2024 is also strengthening this segment.

 

“We’re seeing strong momentum in corporate bookings. Clients are sticky, word-of-mouth is strong, and we’re signing new accounts each quarter,” Magow said.

 

Speaking about its recent $3.1 billion fundraise, which reduced key shareholder Trip.com’s stake to under 20 per cent from 45.34 per cent, Magow said it was a good time for financial restructuring, as the company’s performance had created strong demand for the stock.

 

“We saw two opportunities. There was liquidity in the market, and the larger objective was to broaden our investor base,” he explained.

 

Though well-capitalised today, Magow said the company is not ruling out future fundraising. “If there’s any opportunity, potentially, why not?” he said in response to a question on future capital-raising plans.

 

The CEO also outlined a clear three-pronged approach as a three-to-five-year growth strategy to scale operations in India and globally.

 

“The first is to solve for every customer’s needs. The second is to never lag behind on technology. It has been our backbone from the start, and we are now using AI to drive productivity,” he added.

 

Earlier this month, the company upgraded its AI agent, Myra, to a generative AI (GenAI) chat-based trip planning assistant using agentic AI. The beta version of Myra is currently available in English and Hindi, with other regional languages to be added soon.

 

“We’ve been investing in AI since 2017 and have seen its benefits — how it helps create more personalised and relevant search options for users. GenAI definitely poses a huge potential for travel,” he said.

 

“We will continue on this path because these are the factors that make or break businesses. A major part of future investments will remain in technology, just as it has in the past,” he added.

 

The third focus is constant supply expansion.

 

“There’s an essential need for good supply expansion. We will continue to add new categories, including international options. In accommodation, homestays — a completely new category — are growing rapidly. We also want to add more destinations, sign up more tours and attractions, and expand cruises,” Magow said.

 

The platform has been expanding its international hotel supply through a direct contracting strategy focused on high-demand outbound destinations. Last month, the company partnered Premier Inn—the UK’s largest hotel chain, which operates over 800 hotels totaling about 77,000 keys.

 

In the past year, MakeMyTrip has added over 2,000 directly contracted hotels across 50 cities in 20 countries, collectively accounting for more than half of India’s outbound travel.

 

Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip reported its first-quarter results for 2025-26, posting an 11 per cent Y-o-Y increase in net profit to $49,429 from $44,523, while revenue from operations grew 5.6 per cent Y-o-Y to $268,846.