The Walmart-owned e-commerce platform Flipkart has acquired online travel agency Cleartrip to diversify its offering. Flipkart will own 100% of Cleartrip’s shareholding, but Cleartrip will keep operating as a separate brand. There is no confirmation on the amount Flipkart paid for the deal, but reports suggest that the deal could be valued at $40 million. It could be a mix of cash and equity deal.
“Cleartrip is synonymous with travel for many customers, and as we diversify and look at new areas of growth, this investment will help strengthen our wide range of offerings for customers,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO at Flipkart Group.
Cleartrip is a 15 years old company founded by Hrush Bhatt, Matthew Spacie, and Stuart Crighton back in 2016. The coronavirus outbreak has impacted the travel business. Cleatrip had also laid off 400-500 employees last year.
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Flipkart is now looking to diversify the business to compete well against Amazon that is aggressively pushing hotel and travel bookings offerings. Flipkart already offers ticket booking services in partnership with other operators. First, it partnered with MakeMyTrip and later moved to Ixigo. Now with this acquisition, the company can serve customers in a better way.
