Data protection bill will be a 'game changer' for the country: RateGain Travel Tech's Bhanu Chopra

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

data protection bill will be a 'game changer' for the country as Indians are not used to caring a lot about sharing their data with third parties and fall prey to a lot of identity theft, said Bhanu Chopra, founder and chairman of NSE-listed RateGain Travel Technologies, in an interview to ET. “With Google and Apple pushing towards data privacy, marketers will find it difficult to target and meet their numbers and this is not only in India, but all the large companies outside India that are looking to engage with the aspirational Indian population that wants to travel,” he added.

The AI-powered SaaS solutions provider for the hospitality and travel industry reported an 80% year-on-year growth in revenues for the quarter ended June and is looking to acquire one company each year for the next three years besides doubling its revenues. “There are three growth vectors for us: continued penetration of what we do today, of all the different products that we have around data as a service, distribution and marketing technology; milking the investments that we made in new product development in reaching a tipping point and M&A.

Since the last five years, we have acquired four companies except for the Covid year,” he said. “So, I continue to see that trend play out.

I do expect that we will acquire at least one company each year. I am confident that within this fiscal year, we will surpass the guidance that we have given,” he added.

RateGain's board has approved raising of funds for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 600 crore through issue of equity shares by way of a qualified institutional placement. The company clocked revenues of Rs 214.48 crore for the quarter ended June, while its profit after tax was at Rs 25 crore, up