MakeMyTrip, an online travel agency, has agreed to buy Happay Expense Management Platform from CRED through a business transfer agreement. In a $180 million deal, CRED purchased Happay in late 2021.
Corporates can use Happay's cost management services to oversee staff travel and tax benefits. For surface logistics firms and large corporations with several branches, the organization provides customized solutions. The Happay brand, its cost management division, and its committed staff will switch to MakeMyTrip under the terms of the new contract. The press release states that Happay's staff will continue to assist its current clientele while collaborating closely with the corporate travel services team at MakeMyTrip.
"The next logical step in our plan to dominate this market is the acquisition of Happay's expenditure management technology and brand. "MakeMyTrip is poised to reshape the standards in corporate travel and expense management in India by incorporating Happay's experience, which encompasses more than 900 corporate clients," stated Rajesh Magow, Co-founder and Group CEO at MakeMyTrip.
The team and payments division of Happay, which has concentrated on creating a cutting-edge technological stack and business payments solutions, will stay with CRED. In collaboration with NPCI, this vertical most recently introduced B2B payment options on Bharat Connect.
"At CRED, we are committed to creating products that facilitate financial advancement. We're putting both teams, who have developed industry-leading products and capabilities, in a position to grow in their respective domains by allowing each vertical to play to its strengths. The chance for the payments team to make the B2B payments process streamlined, dependable, and poised for exponential expansion excites me," stated Kunal Shah, Founder at CRED.
According to MakeMyTrip, it serves over 450 big corporates through Quest2Travel (a platform designed for large corporations) and over 59,000 corporate clients through MyBiz (a platform for small and medium-sized corporates).
MakeMyTrip, which is listed on the Nasdaq, announced sales of $211 million for the second quarter of this fiscal year, a 24.3% increase over the same quarter in the previous fiscal year. The company's profit for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 was $17.9 million, up from $2 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.
While the deal's value has not been disclosed, the fact that CRED has kept the payments company demonstrates the strategic nature of the hive off. However, it appears like CRED will write off the agreement, with only the magnitude yet to be determined. There's nothing wrong with changing plans, and given CRED's rapid speed until recently, this was perhaps an expected conclusion for some of its moves.
