TravelGuru To Acquire Desiya.com
By Nikhil Pahwa - Tue 09 Oct 2007 11:20 PM PST
TravelGuru, an Online Travel Agency (OTA) funded by Sequoia Capital and Battery Ventures, is close to acquiring another travel portal, Desiya.com, reports VC Circle. Desiya Founder and CEO Amit Taneja has refused to confirm the development.
Desiya was founded in 2005 by Amit Taneja, Reuel Ghosh and Andrew Morsi, and has offices in Gurgaon and Kolkata in India and London and New Jersey. It currently employs around 50 people and has a network of 3300 hotels. Around a year ago, Desiya had signed a deal to power MSNs travel section, but that mandate now is with Cox & Kings. VC Circle says that the company has been focusing on the B2B hotel solutions, of which TravelGuru is a client. Thus, it seems to be case of backward integration for TravelGuru. Among the other OTAs, MakeMyTrip recently disclosed a third round of funding and reiterated plans for an IPO. Yatra too has plans for an IPO, and in a space struggling for differentiation, there appears to be a funding arms race in progress. As heavily funded OTAs separate from the rest of the pack, there is bound to be consolidation.
Posted in: E-commerce, Travel, Mergers & Acquisitions
