Chennai, NFAPost: SpiceJet has announced that it has aqui-hired the team and technology of Travenues, a Bengaluru-based airline technology company that built several innovative products for airline e-commerce.
Launched in 2019, Travenues is a wholly owned subsidiary of ixigo, the leading AI-based travel app. It aggregates and compares real-time travel information, prices & availability for flights, trains, buses, cabs, hotels, packages & destinations.
With this acqui-hire, the technology team of Travenues has joined SpiceJet and SpiceJet will inherit the airline technology and commerce platform built by Travenues that specialises with its deep tech advancements in mobile apps, UX, engagement, cross-selling, payments, ancillaries, personalisation and more.
Last year, Travenues had signed its first technology partnership with SpiceJet for digital transformation of its consumer-facing experiences. Travenues had also bagged a number of pre-eminent awards for its innovative products and strategic excellence in aviation including CAPA Travel and Aviation Innovation Award In Singapore.
Travenues is a technology platform business for travel suppliers. It was founded by a team with decades of experiences across GDS (Global Distribution Systems), OTA (Online Travel Agency) and meta-search business to improve passenger customer experience. Travenues offers a comprehensive travel-tech optimised airline commerce and ancillary sales platform to airlines that allows for extensive customisation and state-of-the-art personalisation.
The startup was also one of the finalists at the WiT Startup Pitch 2019 held in Singapore. Its investors include Sequoia, Fosun RZ Capital and Saif Partners.
SpiceJet Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Ashish Vikram said, “We are glad to welcome Team Travenues to SpiceJet. This acqui-hire will help SpiceJet strengthen its e-commerce platforms as we continue to innovate across multiple technology areas and achieve our vision of being the worldwide leader in aviation technology.”
Travenues Chief Digital Officer Chandramouli Gopalakrishnan said, “We are proud of the team and the full stack airline commerce suite we have built and we wish the SpiceJet team all the best in taking it to the next level with a talented and motivated team”.
Aloke Bajpai is the Chief Executive Officer of Travenues. A travel industry veteran, an IIT Kanpur alumnus and MBA graduate from INSEAD, Aloke worked in various product and technology roles at Amadeus, France, prior to launching ixigo in 2007. He has been instrumental in building the most innovative travel technology products in India. Aloke is also a key investor and advisor for several startups and accelerators.
ixigo Co-founder and CTO Rajnish Kumar said, “We are happy that we were able to incubate a startup and build a next generation platform with a motivated tightly-knit team that can truly disrupt airline direct sales and airline commerce. The possibilities this unfolds for SpiceJet are endless!”
After graduating from the Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 2001 Rajnish started his career at Amadeus France and quickly went on to own technology leadership roles handling cross-site projects between France, Spain and UK. He also worked as a researcher in Artificial Intelligence where he published a couple of papers one of which was presented at MIT, Boston in 2004. In 2007, he launched ixigo.
