MakeMyTrip buys Quick Ride majority stake, terms undisclosed

By Olivia Hart

MakeMyTrip has acquired a majority stake in Co Ride Mobility Private Limited, the new entity that houses the Quick Ride brand and ride-pooling business. The transaction's financial terms remain undisclosed.

MakeMyTrip said the acquisition marks its entry into ride pooling, where travelers share car and bike journeys. It also expands the travel technology platform's ground transportation portfolio into daily urban commutes.

Entrackr exclusively reported on October 19 that MakeMyTrip was in talks to acquire Quick Ride through its redBus subsidiary. The completed transaction took a different form: MakeMyTrip bought a majority stake in Co Ride Mobility Private Limited after an internal restructuring moved the ride-pooling business and brand into that entity.

Quick Ride's promoters will continue to lead the business. Its erstwhile EV taxi operation will remain with predecessor entity iDisha Info Labs Private Limited.

The material discloses neither a purchase price nor the percentage stake. It also contains no Quick Ride revenue, ridership or profitability figures. Investors therefore have no disclosed benchmark for measuring the acquired business's financial contribution.

MakeMyTrip has bought control of a pooled-commute operation, but has left its economics unstated.

What exactly did MakeMyTrip acquire?

Bengaluru-based Quick Ride was founded in 2015 by KNM Rao. Its asset-light mobility platform connects people traveling along similar routes for car and bike pooling, with shared rides intended for everyday commutes.

The platform also serves corporate employees through partnerships with companies, IT parks and business campuses. Quick Ride says the model can make commuting more affordable and reduce the number of vehicles on roads.

No figures in the disclosure show ridership, routes covered or vehicles removed. The source also does not explain how continued promoter leadership operates alongside MakeMyTrip's majority ownership.

Quick Ride adds a founder-led pooling service to MakeMyTrip, without a disclosed measure of its scale.

Why does redBus matter to the deal?

Quick Ride will sit within MakeMyTrip's ground transport business. The company said it will draw on its experience building redBus in India and overseas markets to scale the platform.

“The acquisition will help the company establish a presence in high-frequency daily commutes within cities, alongside intercity travel,” said Rajesh Magow, MakeMyTrip's co-founder and group CEO.

Prakash Sangam, redBus's CEO and head of ground transport at MakeMyTrip, said the deal will “expand the company's offerings across different travel needs.” MakeMyTrip also sees an opportunity to serve the same customers across daily office commutes and intercity journeys.

MakeMyTrip's ground transportation portfolio already includes redBus and Savaari. The Quick Ride deal adds ride pooling to those existing services rather than creating a separate standalone division.

Quick Ride gives MakeMyTrip a daily-commute product to place alongside redBus and Savaari.

How was Quick Ride financed?

Quick Ride has raised funding from Sequoia Capital India, now Peak XV Partners; Naspers, now part of Prosus; and Venture Highway. In 2019, it raised Rs 100.78 crore ($14.4 million) in a Series B from existing investors.

That 2019 financing predates the internal restructuring described by MakeMyTrip. The source does not show how much capital supports the ride-pooling business rather than the EV taxi operation now housed elsewhere.

Quick Ride brings a funded operating history, but not a disclosed financial split between its old and new structures.

Is this a one-off deal or part of a strategy?

MakeMyTrip describes the acquisition as part of a strategy to expand across travel segments through acquisitions and strategic investments. In recent years, the company has acquired Savaari in car rental, Happay in corporate travel and expense management, and Flamingo Transworld in regional group holiday packages.

It has also made a strategic minority investment in visa processing platform Atlys. The sequence gives MakeMyTrip exposure to daily commuting, bus and car travel, corporate expense handling, group holidays and visa services.

That reach does not establish integration success. The source provides no customer-overlap figures for the proposed cross-selling opportunity. Neither Magow nor Sangam provided revenue or cost-savings targets.

The pattern shows an acquisition-led expansion strategy, not a single-product bet.

What will show whether the acquisition works?

MakeMyTrip says the addition of Quick Ride will widen customer choices from daily commutes to intercity journeys. The next test is whether the pooled-commute service gains users and corporate accounts within its broader ground transport operations.

The disclosure provides no integration timetable or operating targets. Without those details, investors cannot judge the near-term earnings impact from the announcement alone.

MakeMyTrip has tied Quick Ride's future to redBus's experience in India and overseas markets. The acquisition sets a clear strategic direction but no measurable financial benchmark, leaving the platform's contribution to group growth unproven.