A corporate roll-up has emerged in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia's largest online travel agency FlyIn becomes part of Cleartrip.
The India-based online travel agency has spent a lot of time since 2012 trying to establish a presence in the region after deliberately targeting travelers in the Middle East, including launching an Arabic website in mid-2017.
The acquisition of FlyIn, which celebrates its tenth year as a Saudi-focused online travel brand, gives Cleartrip a significant foothold in its quest to push into individual country markets across the region.
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Terms of the deal have no been disclosed, but the pair are touting the acquisition as the "largest in the travel space in the Middle East and North Africa region".
They claim to have a combined market share in MENA of more than 60%.
Cleartrip founder and CEO, Stuart Crighton, says the company remains ambitious in the MENA region but the FlyIn deal is a "major milestone".
"The deal represents the culmination of our search for a strategic partner that has outstanding market association in Saudi Arabia and shares our business ethos and principles."
Cleartrip has raised $56.4 million in capital since its foundation in 2006, including a $40 million round via Concur in 2011.
The FlyIn deal is its first major acquisition.
It is not the only online travel brand from outside the MENA region to make a concerted play for the market there.
South Africa-based TravelStart and metasearch players, HotelsCombined and Wego, have all targeted the Middle East as strategic priorities in recent years.
The ME region's population is around 371 million (some 50 million more than the U.S.) and is considered by ClearTrip as home to a large population population of tech-savvy consumers, with some of the highest levels of smartphone and web penetration in the world.