SAIF Partners sell remaining 11pc stake in MakeMyTrip reaping 16x profits

The investment firm, SAIF Partners, which invested in MakeMyTrip’s Series B and Series C round of funding, has sold its entire remaining stake in the company fetching it the largest cash exit in India’s venture capital industry.

The VC firm now holds zero shares in MakeMyTrip, according to the travel agency's filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Since October, SAIF Partners has shed its 11 percent, earning more than $400 million on its investments in MakeMyTrip, reaping 16 times the money it put in, based on regulatory filings and assessments by two people familiar with the transactions.

Apparently, the firm had invested about $25 million in MakeMyTrip between 2005 and 2008 and owned about 41 percent stake in the company when it debuted on Nasdaq in 2010.

This is surely one of the most rewarding and rare investments exits in Indian startup industry. Most of the Venture Capitalists in India are finding it tough to generate cash from their investments as very few portfolio companies have opted for initial public offerings of their shares.

MakeMyTrip was founded in the year 2000 by Deep Kalra, Keyur Joshi, and Rajesh Magow. It raised its first funding from media conglomerate Newscorp-backed eVentures, which the promoters later bought back. In 2005, the company began focusing on the domestic market, which was when SAIF invested $10 million in it.