"Via.com the Intel Inside of the Indian travel Industry " - John Mullins (London School of Business)

BANGALORE, India - Nov. 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Via.com, India's leading travel network with presence in Indonesia, Singapore and Philippines is featured in "The Customer-Funded Business", the latest book of Professor John Mullins (Associate Professor of Marketing, London School of Business).

While discussing the customer funded business model, John Mullins, an acclaimed professor and author has taken Via.com as a case study to describe the main context of his book.  The fact that the  company -  which was started in a garage a few years back -  finds a place in Mullins' book speaks of its rapid growth and unique business model.

Excerpts from the book “ The Customer-Funded Business”:

For Via, an Indian travel industry startup founded in 2007, founder Vinay Gupta was able to sign up 170 travel agents in two months, each of whom gave his new company a $5,000 rolling deposit they could then use to issue airline tickets. Do the math: $850,000 to start and grow the business! What Gupta gave them in exchange was real-time ticketing capability – something they hadn’t had earlier – and better commissions than the airlines were giving them directly. With that level of traction in hand, angel investment and venture capital soon followed. Today Via does half a billion in annual revenue and has become the “Intel Inside” of the Indian travel industry.

When contacted, the founder Mr. Vinay Gupta expressed his happiness and said "from its inception, Via has always strived to be the best and our philosophy has been to take complexity out and bring quality and affordability in". Regarding Via.com's business model, he said, "Via is a platform that empowered both our partners (travel agents) and end consumer to get the best travel booking experience”.

Mr. Swaminathan, CEO of Via.com, said on the occasion “We are proud of  this acknowledgment. Via's unique business model is what makes it stand out in the travel industry”.

About Via.com:

Via.com, incorporated in 2007, is South East Asia's leading travel network with leadership position in India, Philippines and Indonesia is a unique and innovative B2B distribution platform through 20,000 travel agent partners in over 2400 towns and cities in India, 150+ cities in  Philippines and 75+ cities in Indonesia. Today, Via.com is the world's leading travel network that offers travel suppliers an extensive distribution reach for selling perishable travel inventory with no incremental cost. Via.com is the travel provider of choice for domestic & international flight tickets, hotels, rail tickets and domestic and holidays. For more information, please visit http://in.via.com/