Meet Deep Kalra, IIM graduate who built Rs 22000 crore holiday booking firm

Deep Kalra, founder of one of the pioneers of online travel in India, MakeMyTrip. The billion-dollar company offers online travel services like hotel bookings, airline tickets, domestic and international vacation packages, taxi bookings, train reservations, and bus tickets.

In 1992, Deep Kalra graduated with a bachelor's degree from St. Stephen's College in Delhi and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad).

His career started as soon as he completed his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and he went on to work for organisations like GE Capital and ABN AMRO Bank, among others! Deep's career was flourishing at GE Money. After working at the bank for three years, Deep decided to start his own company.

He observed that the Internet sector was expanding quickly and offered many opportunities for profit! Having said that, he resigned from his position and started the old-age brainstorming session! With all the brokers, agents, and intermediaries in place, he observed that the online travel sector was more disorganised than a man's bedroom.

With the help of co-founders Keyur Joshi, Rajesh Magow, and Sachin Bhatia and $2 million in funding from eVentures, Deep was able to create one of today's most well-known websites, MakeMyTrip, in order to eliminate greedy and expensive travel agents and streamline the travel and vacation planning industry so that travellers could more easily plan low-cost vacations.

Deep Kalra, is a representative of the body’s Executive Council. He also serves on the board of TiE, New Delhi and is a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). According to his LinkedIn page, Deep is a member of the CII's Tourism Subcommittee and a frequent speaker at internet and travel conferences all around the world.

About MakeMyTrip: 

The Internet travel sector in India was founded by MakeMyTrip. The business was founded on the principle of "empowering the traveller with quick, simple, and comprehensive travel bookings." According to the company's official website, Deep Kalra created MakeMyTrip in 2000 with the goal of offering the best value in products and services to the US-India travel industry. He did this by utilising cutting-edge technology and 24-hour customer support.

“After successfully consolidating its position as a customer-first brand known for its reliability and transparency, MakeMyTrip launched its India operations in 2005”, the company said about its launch.

As of June 2023 MakeMyTrip has a market cap of $2.84 Billion. This makes MakeMyTrip the world's 3345th most valuable company by market cap according to companiesmarketcap website.