Budget carrier SpiceJet on Tuesday announced that it has aqui-hired the team and technology of Travenues, a Bengaluru-based airline technology company that built several innovative products for airline ecommerce.

In acqui-hiring, a relatively a new concept in the tech industry, the employees of a company are recruited rather than gaining the control of its products or services.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Travenues is a wholly owned subsidiary of AI-based travel app ixigo. It offers a comprehensive travel-tech optimised airline commerce and ancillary sales platform to airlines that allows for extensive customisation and state of the art personalisation.

With this move, SpiceJet will absorb Travenues' travel technology team and airline commerce platform built by Travenues that specialises with its deep tech advancements in mobile apps, UX, engagement, cross-selling, payments, ancillaries, personalisation and more.

Ashish Vikram, chief technology and innovation officer, SpiceJet, said, "We are glad to welcome Team Travenues to SpiceJet. This acqui-hire will help SpiceJet strengthen its e-commerce platforms as we continue to innovate across multiple technology areas and achieve our vision of being the worldwide leader in aviation technology."

Chandramouli Gopalakrishnan, chief digital officer, Travenues added, "We are proud of the team and the full stack airline commerce suite we have built and we wish the SpiceJet team all the best in taking it to the next level with a talented and motivated team."

Rajnish Kumar, co-founder and chief technical officer, ixigo said, "We are happy that we were able to incubate a startup and build a next generation platform with a motivated tightly-knit team that can truly disrupt airline direct sales and airline commerce. The possibilities this unfolds for SpiceJet are endless!"

Last year, Travenues had signed its first technology partnership with SpiceJet for digital transformation of its consumer-facing experiences.

First Published:Jul 21, 2020 3:21 PM IST