Matrix Partners India invests in Itilite

Bengaluru, November 9, 2017: Matrix Partners India announced today that it has invested in B2B Travel SaaS provider Itilite. Itilite is an end-to-end corporate travel management solution that reduces cost by rewarding employees for saving on travel. The funds will be used to strengthen the technology platform and to expand the team. A number of angel investors also participated in the round.

Corporate travel is a US$ 30B market in India that is largely fragmented and serviced by offline Travel Management Companies. Most companies struggle with meeting employee expectations while preventing a major escalation in travel costs. Itilite's approach is to reward employees for travel savings, thus making them the biggest ambassadors of travel cost reduction. In addition, the platform provides a better travel booking experience using dynamic travel policy integration, self-learning algorithms for trip planning, analytics dashboards for CFOs, and other features. This approach has helped Itilite's customers lower travel cost by 30%, while making employees happier. Both the founders, Mayank Kukreja and Anish Khadiya, have worked at McKinsey and Myntra previously.

Commenting on the investment, Mayank Kukreja, Co-Founder, Itilite, said, "We are excited to partner with Matrix to fill the huge gap in the business travel market. Our state-of'“the-art technology coupled with behavioral science helps align the incentives of the company and the traveler. I am personally thrilled to see the change in traveler behaviour across our customers, who are now planning their trips in advance and are adopting technology wholeheartedly for a better travel experience.'

Anish Khadiya, Co-Founder, Itilite, added, "Itilite learns employee preferences and surfaces personalized travel options, making the booking process smarter and seamless. Our customers are already benefitting from our data platform. We are confident that we will help CFOs and Travel Managers across industries remove inefficiencies, simplify processes, and enhance visibility into travel spends.'

"Corporate travel is in some sense the final frontier of travel '“ a large market that has meaningful components that are still offline and manual. Itilite's innovative SaaS product takes a lot of the friction out of the process. In addition, it also drives cost saving for clients that creates direct bottom-line impact. We are privileged to be in business with Mayank and Anish, and look forward to helping them on their journey to create a large company', said Gourav Bhattacharya, Vice President, Matrix India.

About Itilite:
Itilite is a powerful corporate travel management solution that balances company's savings and traveller experience. Through its flexible cloud software, Itilite allows travellers to complete bookings under 60 seconds, and helps companies reduce their travel costs by upto 30%.

Itilite's USP is an incentive program where employees are rewarded for savings they make for their company during travel. Itilite's AI powered algorithms predict the cost for every trip and lets the traveller keep half the savings they make by choosing cost conscious options (e.g., choosing a budget hotel property). Itilite also helps travel managers discover real-time insights, that allows them to secure additional discounts from airlines and hotels. Further information is available at http://www.itilite.com

About Matrix Partners India:
Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with INR 4,500 crore under management. The firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early and early growth stages. Matrix India has invested in several market leading companies such as Ola (local transportation), Quikr (online classifieds), Practo (digital health platform), Dailyhunt (mobile local language platform), Mswipe (mobile POS), Five Star Finance (SME lending), Treebo (digital hotel chain), Limeroad (mobile social commerce marketplace), Razorpay (payments), Belong (recruitment platform) among others. Matrix Partners has a global network of funds investing in the US, China and India with US$ 4B under management. Further information is available at www.matrixpartners.in