A company that started 25 years ago believes that its best is yet to come.
Yeah, it's kind of surreal. And even when I saw Young Turks 25 years, I told you the same thing. I said, 'My god, we've come a long way.' When you look back, it doesn't feel like 25. I think life in the internet industry is life in the fast lane. It moves so fast. The first five years were all about survival. Three of those five were dark but formative. From 2005 to 2010, it was a ferocious run to IPO. Till six months before the IPO, we weren't even planning one. It was Sanjiv Vik Chandani, an independent board member, who told us in a January board meeting that we were ready to IPO. We were surprised. He said, 'Three years ago, we were at the same level and you guys are growing faster. You should IPO.' Rajesh was CFO then. We worked for six months and IPOed in August 2010 on NASDAQ, the first Indian internet company to do so.
What's the most unusual celebration case that you've seen?
I believe they're now breakup and turning single again parties. All kinds of stuff is happening — the proposal economy is happening. Youngsters choose exotic locations to propose and they travel for that. For the last few quarters, we see our frequent travelers are taking more trips than ever. It's a combination of short-term locations and the YOLO phenomenon is here to stay, especially with Gen Z.
25 years ago a young man called Deep Kala decided to get into the online travel business. 25 years later, Make My Trip is one of India's leading travel companies and has seen a record-breaking FY24. Here's the Make My Trip story over the last 25 years in numbers: 80 million plus lifetime transacted customers, 490 million plus app downloads, 519 million shopper visits. In 2010, they listed on NASDAQ. They've had acquisitions and learnings, but it's been an exhilarating ride.
Joining us now to talk about the story, the last 25 years, but more importantly, the next 25 is Deep Kala and Rajesh Magow. Deep, Rajesh, many thanks for joining us. Deep, let me go back 25 years. So much has changed. So many low points in the course of your journey. On many occasions, it was almost a question of will you be able to make it through. But you have and you survived and you're here to tell the tale.
Yeah, it's kind of surreal. When I saw Young Turks 25 years, I told you the same thing: 'My god, we've come a long way.' When you look back, it doesn't feel like 25. Life in the internet industry is life in the fast lane. It moves so fast. The first five years were all about just survival. Three of those five were really dark, but looking back, they were the best years because that's when the idea became proof of concept and the team was united. Then from 2005 to 2010, it was a ferocious run to IPO. Till six months before the IPO, we weren't even planning one. It was Sanjiv Vik Chandani, an independent board member, who told us we were ready. We were surprised. He said, 'Three years ago we were at the same level and you guys are growing faster. You should IPO.' Rajesh was CFO then and we put our heads together. In six months, we IPOed on NASDAQ in August 2010, the first Indian internet company to do so. Then from 2010 to COVID, it was a good run with some hiccups when Kingfisher went down, but we built the hotel business and acquired Goibbo and Redbus. COVID was a complete reset. Our business went down 96% in a quarter. We restructured costs, let go of 10% of staff, and came back stronger. Our last year was our best year ever. We probably make more profit than any other internet company in India. It's a big company now, and I couldn't have asked for a better 25-year script.
And an appropriate 25-year gift is the fact that you've reported your best numbers ever — 46 million in quarterly profit, your best performance, 11 billion in market capitalization. But Rajesh, before I get to the numbers, I want to talk about how you got started, your exit, and your return to Make My Trip, because that's also an incredible story.
Yeah. No, absolutely. You should share that.
No, I know, and it's a very interesting story. Maybe it was destined. I joined Deep when he was looking for a founding team. I approached him, we had a long meeting, and I decided I wanted to work with him. I had corporate experience and was ready to get into a startup. After I said yes, Deep told me the idea and that they had raised some money, but then the promised funding from RBC backed out. Deep called me honestly and told me. I said, 'Don't worry, I've already quit my job. We'll sink or swim together.' So I joined. India wasn't ready for online travel then, so we pivoted and did a joint venture with eBookers from the UK. They wanted to set up an India unit and saw us as a ready-made team. It was a build-operate-transfer arrangement that gave us fees to keep the company alive. That's how we started.
We were on life support. Yeah. And so we had that arrangement. Someone needed to be there. They wanted both of us, but I said it's hard because Make My Trip is my baby, but Rajesh will run it and I'll oversee. It was a build-operate-transfer, we got fees that kept our fires burning. The big lesson is that you do whatever it takes within the realm of staying honest and straight. If you believe in something, find a way. I tell young entrepreneurs even today: just don't give up too early.
What you said — and I want to get both of you to comment on that. You said sometimes people give up too early. Your advice to young entrepreneurs is don't give up too early. But what does it take to find that kind of resilience, to build the courage to say 'I'm on life support but I ain't giving up'?
I think it's a couple of things. First, complete conviction in your idea — not in how you execute, but in what you're building. Second, the chemistry with your co-founders or founding team. They share your vision and question you to sharpen it. Third, numbers tell you where you're going; you need to see incremental improvements. And the X factor is gut instinct — knowing when to push through.
I want to know through some of those hard moments — and there have been plenty, as Deep has spoken about — what makes you decide, okay, let's give it another shot, versus thinking we've done enough and need to pull back? Can you give examples of when you've had to make that decision?
Absolutely. Before I give examples, I want to add one more thing about building resilience: making the choice to be an entrepreneur is serious; it's not for everyone. Don't do it just because it's fashionable. The conviction starts there. Now, an example of pulling back: We went IPO on the back of flights business only. We knew we had to build other businesses, especially hotels. That was the hardest business to build because the supply side was fragmented — 80% of inventory from non-chain hotels with little technology — and consumer habit was to walk to hotels and decide. We invested heavily in marketing but nothing happened. So we pulled back. We realized we needed to do heavy lifting on the partner ecosystem, build technology for them, and go brick by brick. That took years but became our moat. That's a good example of stopping and investing in the right areas.
As we look at what's happening in the industry today, different sectors, not just travel, do you believe consolidation is going to force sanity? That's exactly why the Goibbo-MakeMyTrip deal happened because you were forced to burn through cash due to competition. Do you believe that consolidation is where we are in many internet sectors in India?
It's a great question, but I don't think consolidation is a silver bullet. It's case by case. Rajesh called out that a private company funded by Naspers had a playbook to force the market leader to buy them out, and we did. But in sectors with listed companies, there's fiscal discipline. In airlines, you have multiple players. In e-commerce, you see duopolies. But the key point is if your unit economics aren't improving, you'll never build a real business. The era of burning cash is largely over. We see much savvier and smarter entrepreneurs today.
But Rajesh, we're talking about choices over the last 25 years. Let's talk about the road ahead. The market has changed, technology is different, the Indian consumer is more savvy with more discretionary income. What do the next 25 years look like when you say the best is yet to come?
The next 25 years for all businesses, including travel, will be driven by India's macro story. Travel is right at the top of where people want to spend their disposable income. The behavior reset from COVID is real: people want experiences over possessions. Our data shows frequent travelers take more trips than ever. The YOLO phenomenon is here to stay, especially with Gen Z. We see unusual celebration cases like breakup parties and proposal trips. People are traveling to exotic locations for proposals. The most valuable thing is time, and people want to create memories. That's great news for travel.
You're now sitting on a very strong balance sheet with record profitability. What does that do in terms of fueling future aspirations? What does it make you want to do with the money? What does it mean for future diversification into ancillary businesses?
