Meet Deep Kalra, The Man Behind Multibillion-dollar Company MakeMyTrip – News18

MakeMyTrip, founded by Deep Kalra, is one of India’s first online travel companies. The multibillion-dollar corporation provides online travel services such as hotel reservations, airline tickets, local and international vacation packages, taxi reservations, train reservations, and bus tickets. Today, let us take a look at Deep Kalra’s success story. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St Stephen’s College in Delhi in 1992, and an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad). His career began after completing his MBA, and he has since worked for companies such as GE Capital and ABN AMRO Bank. Deep’s career at GE Capital was thriving, but he wanted to establish his own business after three years of working at the bank.

Deep Kalra took a major risk by leaving a solid career in 1995. He left his secure and well-paying position at ABN Bank to work for MF Bowling, an American corporation. This business constructs a bowling alley and a billiards hall. At the time, this corporation was planning to enter the Indian market. Deep Kalra gave it his best effort and was successful in opening over 200 lanes. The majority of them were minor centres. The worst part was that it was not his initiative. His supervisor, who was in faraway America, pushed him into the market with no mentorship or supervision. He quickly realised that he was not making the best use of his skills and should try something different. Following that, he started MakeMyTrip.

Deep noticed that the Internet was rapidly growing and offered numerous prospects for profit. He resigned from his work and began his brainstorming session. With all of the brokers, agents, and intermediaries in place, he noticed that the online travel industry was as disorganised as a man’s bedroom.

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

He is currently also a Charter Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) and serves on the board of TiE, New Delhi. He is a member of the CII’s Tourism Subcommittee and a frequent speaker at Internet and travel conferences throughout the world.