Mondee Acquires Brazilian Online Travel Marketplace Orinter for $40 Million

25.08.2023 - 14:13 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Orestes Fintiklis

Mondee is scooping up Brazilian online travel marketplace Orinter for $40 million, its first acquisition since going public last year, the company said Wednesday.

Mondee provides travel agents access to a marketplace for booking on behalf of their customers. Travel agents access that marketplace, as well as ancillary software products to manage their business, through a Mondee software platform. Orinter offers a similar marketplace service to travel agents for hotels and ground transport, but without the tech platform.

The acquisition gives Mondee access to Orinter’s network of contracts, which spans throughout Brazil and the rest of South America. And Orinter’s nearly 5,000 travel agents now have access to Mondee’s tech and network, enabling them to expand offerings to their customers. The $40 million deal is comprised of cash and Mondee common stock. 

This is the beginning of an acquisition spree, according to Orestes Fintiklis, vice chairman for Mondee and the company’s chief corporate strategy and business development officer.

“This is what we’ll be doing over the next two years, and you will be seeing a lot of M&A coming,” Fintiklis said. 

Mondee’s strategy is to expand offerings and market reach, and accelerate growth, by acquiring only companies that add specific capabilities beyond what Mondee already has, he said. 

“If you want to expand product and expand geography, you can do it on your own organically, but it’s going to take you another 20 years. Or, you can buy a company and then supercharge it by giving it your distribution and your technology,” Fintiklis said. 

Companies like Booking Holdings and Expedia have consolidated much of the fragmented business-to-consumer travel industry. Now, Mondee’s executives want to do the same with the business-to-business-to-consumer sector, he said. 

“It’s very ripe for consolidation, especially in the geographical dimension,” Fintiklis said. “We aspire to be the biggest B2B2C player globally in travel.” 

About 80 percent the Mondee’s bookings are for flights, the rest now comprised of hotels and car rentals. The company plans to soon expand offerings to include cruises, theaters, theme parks, sporting events, and other ticketed events, Fintiklis said.

Another newer source of revenue for the company, clients can use Mondee fintech products for payments, fraud protection, and price freezes. The company also sells travel insurance and more. 

In its continued geographical expansion, Mondee is focused first on Latin America — hence the Orinter acquisition — then India and Europe, in that order. 

The company during the pandemic opened the use of its product beyond just traditional travel agents to include home-based agents and more, he said. The company