Adani Group picks up minority stake in Flipkart-owned Cleartrip

Bengaluru, 30 October The race to own a share of burgeoning internet-powered ecosystem grows up, as big corporate houses increasingly make big bets on these startups. The latest to join the race is the Adani Group which has acquired a significant minority stake in Flipkart-owned travel app Cleartrip.

With this stake buy, India's biggest airports operator Adani Group gains a foothold in the fast-growing online travel space.

As a part of the investment, Cleartrip will serve as the group's online travel agency partner, Adani Enterprises, the company said in an exchange filing.

"Since the acquisition by the Flipkart Group, Cleartrip has seen 10 times growth in flight bookings. Also, trends observed by Adani airports indicate that the number of passengers at airports has increased, reaching close to pre-Covid-19 highs. This partnership will further enable Cleartrip to transcend digital boundaries and bring end-to-end travel services online," the company said in the statement.

The investment is seen as a step towards Adani Group's plan to build a broader Super App. Earlier, Tata Group has plan to float such a super app housing all its consumer-facing businesses.

The development comes just months after the Adani Group entered into a strategic partnership with Walmart-owned Flipkart for a logistics hub and a data centre.

"We have a strongly developing relationship with Flipkart that spans multiple dimensions, including data centres, fulfilment centres and now air travel," Gautam Adani said. "It is such strategic partnerships among homegrown companies which will eventually create local jobs as well as an Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India)," he added.