In this segment of Young Turks Reloaded, Deep Kalra and Rajesh Magow, Co-Founders of India’s first online travel company look back at their 25-year journey! From surviving multiple near deaths as a startup, to making several pivots to grow, listing on the Nasdaq, stitching up big acquisitions, they drop plenty of truth bombs!
Like how an unexpected push from Sanjeev Bikhchandani led to their historic Nasdaq IPO - a milestone they hadn’t even planned for six months prior to the event! Rajesh Magow says Gen Z is a boon for business as the experience economy reshapes the travel business.
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13:58But what does it take to find that kind of resilience, to build the courage, to have the conviction to say, 'I'm on life support but I ain't giving up'?
Yeah, it's kind of surreal. 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. Life in the internet industry is life in the fast lane. Till 6 months before the IPO, we weren't even planning an IPO. It was Sanjiv Chandani, an independent on our board, who said IPO. He told us in a January board meeting that we were ready to IPO. We said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Three years ago we were at the same level and you guys are growing faster.'
What's the most unusual celebration case that you've seen? I believe they're now breakup and turning single again parties. Breakup and turning single again parties and get-togethers. All kinds of stuff is happening, like the proposal economy. People now, youngsters are choosing exotic locations to make a proposal and they actually travel. For the last few quarters, we see our frequent travelers are taking more trips than ever before. It's a combination of short-term locations and we've seen trends like the YOLO phenomenon is here to stay with Gen Z.
Z 25 years ago, a young man called Deep Kalra decided that he wanted to get into the online travel business. 25 years later, MakeMyTrip is one of India's leading travel companies and has seen a record-breaking 2023-24. Here's the MakeMyTrip story over the last 25 years in numbers: 80 million plus lifetime transacted customers, 490 million plus app downloads, 519 million shopper visits. That tells you the story of MakeMyTrip over the last 25 years. In 2010, they decided to list on the NASDAQ. They've seen a flurry of acquisitions through the course of their journey, and there's been plenty of learnings, plenty of setbacks, 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 Kalra and Rajes Magaw. Deep, Rajes, 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. 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. Life in the internet industry is life in the fast lane. It moves so fast. Typically, it's waves of five years for us. The first five years were all about survival, making sure we live to see another day. At least three of those five years were really dark, but when I look back, they were the best years because that's when the germ of an idea became proof of concept, became a business, started making money. The team was together with a shared common passion and dream, and it was happening despite all odds. 2005 to 2010 was a ferocious run to IPO. Till 6 months before the IPO, we weren't even planning it. Sanjiv Chandani, an independent board member, told us in a January board meeting that we were ready. We were surprised. Rajesh was CFO then. We put our heads together, and in 6 months we IPOed on NASDAQ in August 2010, one of the first internet companies from India to IPO there. Then from 2010 to COVID was a good run with some hiccups. When Kingfisher went down, it challenged the domestic air industry. We started building a hotel business. We acquired Goibibo and RedBus. COVID was a complete reset. Our business went down 96% in a quarter. We restructured costs, had to let go of 10% of staff, which was very hard. But we came back stronger. Our last year has been our best year ever by all measures.
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Kalra, D. (2025, April 5). Deep Kalra & Rajesh Magow Share Their Early Days Of MakeMyTrip | Young Turks Reloaded | CNBC TV18 [Interview transcript]. CNBC-TV18. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1073394/
MLA
Deep Kalra. "Deep Kalra & Rajesh Magow Share Their Early Days Of MakeMyTrip | Young Turks Reloaded | CNBC TV18." CNBC-TV18, 5 Apr. 2025. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1073394/.
BibTeX
@misc{kalra2025_1073394,
author = {Deep Kalra},
title = {Deep Kalra \& Rajesh Magow Share Their Early Days Of MakeMyTrip | Young Turks Reloaded | CNBC TV18},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, CNBC-TV18. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2025},
month = {apr},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1073394/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
