Amit Somani resigned as MakeMyTrip’s Chief Product officer last month (February 10, 2014) after a four year stint with the company, the company has informed in an SEC filing. His resignation is effective May 9, 2014, following which Somani will continue to advise the company on its web and mobile products.
Update: Somani told us via email he will continue to stay on as an advisory board member on MakeMyTrip and plans to start his own venture. However, he declined to disclose any specific details on this venture. We are yet to hear back from MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra on who will be taking over this role now.
Somani had joined MakeMyTrip as its Chief Products Officer in January 2010 and was heading the company’s online product portfolio along with its user experience and content. He was also responsible for managing the P&L of several business including hotels & mobile.
Prior to MakeMyTrip, he was with Google heading the product management for Google AdWords Keyword Recommendations, Mobile Products and Search, Consumer & Infrastructure. He has also worked with IBM. He’s also an advisor for the MakeMyTrip-backed online travel meta search engine iXiGO.com.
Last month, MakeMyTrip had informed that it had completed the acquisition of the entire equity interest in a group of companies comprising the EasyToBook.com (ETB) group. It had purchased shares from the existing shareholders of EasyToBook and further invested into the company. The company had mentioned the total purchase consideration and investment in EasyToBook was around $5 million. This was MakeMyTrip’s fifth hotel-related acquisition and fourth overseas acquisition.
Earlier in the year, MakeMyTrip had reported a net loss of $1.6 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2013 (Q3-FY13), an improvement from $5.23 million loss reported in the same quarter last year, although this was the company’s fifth consecutive loss making quarter. The net revenues (revenues less service costs) was at $28.6 million for the quarter, registering a 27.7% growth from $22.4 million revenues in the same quarter last year whereas the gross bookings decreased by 4% year-on-year (YoY) to $311.3 million from $324.4 million in the same quarter last year.
