EaseMyTrip Success Story – Business Model, How They Started & Much More

EaseMyTrip is an online Travel company founded in 2008 by Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti. The company is headquartered in New Delhi and has grown into one of India’s most trusted travel platforms. 

You can book flight tickets, hotel stays, vacation packages, bus reservations, cruises, cabs and white-label services.

Just choose the service you need, enter your travel details like dates, number of passengers, and preferences, and complete the booking through online payment.

EaseMyTrip also offers a mobile app for both iOS and Android, so users can plan and book their trips anytime, from anywhere.

Let’s see how EaseMyTrip started,

EaseMyTrip Company Overview

Story Behind EaseMyTrip

The concept of the “EaseMyTrip” idea came into existence when Rikant Pitti found that a travel agent was overcharging his father on every flight he took for his business needs. His father was a coal trader, and he took 10-15 flights in a month. One day, Rikant and his elder brother found that the travel agent was charging almost 1.5k extra per ticket from his father, which means nearly 20k per month.

 

After this, Rikant and his brother started booking their father’s travel tickets online to save their father’s money. And soon, all their relatives began calling him to book their tickets. His fame spread, and his father also started referring him to his colleagues, as they could get their tickets cheaper. Rikant, in turn, was getting his pocket money by charging a Rs 100-500 commission on each ticket.

Both brothers saw ample opportunity in this business. So they decided to open a business with the name “Duke Travels,” and with the bulk SMS, they started marketing their travel booking services.

The big turnaround happened when an airline company (Air Deccan) found frequent bookings from a single email account (Pitti brothers’ ID). the airline company decided to partner with them. This partnership helped the company grow, and they started scaling and rebranding themselves as “EaseMyTrip.”

Though the partnership didn’t stay long because ticket prices were too low to make profits for either side. However, this phase helped EaseMyTrip build strong connections with multiple travel agents. 

After the partnership ended, they worked with other agents, reduced commission rates, collected advance payments, and started buying flight tickets in bulk. This allowed them to get huge discounts, which they then passed on to customers.

Today, with the help of EaseMyTrip, you can easily book flights, hotels, trains, buses, holiday cruises, and charters, all in one place.

Funding Rounds of EaseMyTrip

EaseMyTrip has raised funding in just one round till date. The company’s latest funding round was a Post-IPO round on August 2, 2022, where it raised an undisclosed amount. Nomura is the only investor in EaseMyTrip’s funding history.

EaseMyTrip IPO

EaseMyTrip was one of the first travel companies in India to go public, and its IPO came during the COVID-19 period, when the travel industry was badly affected. 

The company was listed on March 19, 2021, with a ₹510 crore IPO size, priced at ₹187 per share. 

Despite the difficult situation, the issue was subscribed 159 times. At listing, EaseMyTrip was valued at around ₹2,040 crore and made a solid debut on BSE and NSE. 

After the IPO, the company reported 86% profit growth in FY 2020–21, even though its booking revenue fell by 50% due to COVID-19.

Acquisitions & Mergers of EaseMyTrip

The company has acquired four businesses. Nutana Aviation Capital was their most recent acquisition as of December 1, 2022.

Services offered by EaseMyTrip

EaseMyTrip offer wide range of travel services as follows:

Business Model of EaseMyTrip

By concentrating on the B2B2C (business to business to consumer) distribution channel and granting travel agents access to its website to buy domestic flight tickets, EaseMyTrip launched its operations in 2008 to serve the offline travel market in India. The company then started operating in the B2C (business-to-customer) distribution channel in 2011 by employing its B2B2C medium and focusing on the travel requirements of India’s expanding middle-class population.

Because of their position in the B2B2C and B2C channels, they launched their B2E (business to enterprise) distribution operations in 2013 and provided end-to-end travel solutions to corporations. Due to their involvement in three separate distribution channels, they have a wide range of consumers and a broad distribution network.

Revenue Model Of EaseMyTrip

EaseMyTrip operates on a commission-based online travel agency (OTA) model, earning revenue from flight, hotel, and holiday package bookings.

EaseMyTrip applies zero convenience fee approach. Unlike most travel platforms, it doesn’t charge users extra during checkout. Because of this, the company relies mainly on one revenue source: Commission from ticket bookings.

Now, since they have only one revenue source, EaseMyTrip had to be extremely cost-conscious. This led them to adopt a no-frills cost model, which simply means cutting out unnecessary expenses.

That’s why EaseMyTrip runs with a small team and spends very little on advertising. Instead of big ad campaigns, most of its growth comes from word-of-mouth and repeat customers.

This helps them have exceptionally high profit margins, with net margins exceeding 50%, something very rare in the online travel market.

Few More Interesting Thing About EaseMyTrip

EaseMyTrip started working with roughly 17 Bollywood movies as its travel and promotion partners. Mr. Nishant Pitti, the CEO of EaseMyTrip.com, entered the film production industry to support the company’s branding efforts. The Bollywood movie “Madaari,” released in theaters on July 22, 2016, was co-produced by Mr. Pitti.

EaseMyTrip – FAQs

1)- What is EaseMyTrip?

EaseMyTrip is India’s one of the largest online travel platforms that offers hotel bookings, flight tickets, holiday packages (domestic and international), and bus bookings services.

2)- Who is the owner of EaseMyTrip?

Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti are the owners of EaseMyTrip.

3)- Is EaseMyTrip an Indian company or not?

Yes, EaseMyTrip is an Indian online travel company.

4)- Is EaseMyTrip Profitable?

Yes, EaseMyTrip is profitable. In FY25, the company reported strong revenues, with ₹8,691.6 crore in Gross Booking Revenue and ₹587.3 crore in operational revenue, showing healthy growth and efficient operations.

5)- Is EaseMyTrip a unicorn company?

Yes, EaseMyTrip is a unicorn company. It achieved Unicorn status in September 2021 when its market capitalization crossed $1 billion, placing it among India’s top unicorns.

6)- Who are the competitors of EaseMyTrip?

Top competitors of EaseMyTrip are MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Yatra, Cleartrip and Ixigo.

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