Prashant Pitti
About Us
Prashant Pitti is a serial entrepreneur and Co-founder of EaseMyTrip, India's second-largest travel portal and one of the rare unicorns built entirely through bootstrapping without any external funding. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (2001-2005), where he pursued B.Tech in Electrical Engineering, Prashant's entrepreneurial journey spans over 13 years of building successful ventures across travel, fintech, and technology sectors.
His remarkable achievement with EaseMyTrip stands as a testament to disciplined growth and customer-first approach. Starting with just ₹15 lakh of personal capital, he and his brothers built the company into a profit-generating machine that reported ₹107 crores in profit after tax in FY'22, all while maintaining their commitment to not charging convenience fees to customers. This unique value proposition, combined with frugal operations and deep customer trust, helped EaseMyTrip grow at a 47% CAGR from FY16 to FY20, eventually leading to a successful IPO and unicorn status.
Beyond EaseMyTrip, Prashant is the Founder of Optimo Capital, a fintech NBFC focused on serving the underserved MSME market by offering business loans in rural India. His earlier ventures include Profoundly, a social dating app that served 62 million users in the Philippines and America, and pioneering attempts in fitness education and edtech that were ahead of their time.
Prashant's connection to IIT Madras runs deep - it's where his entrepreneurial foundation was laid and where he first experienced the incubation ecosystem under Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala with his venture India Helo. He credits the institute not just for its world-class education but for fostering an environment that encourages bold thinking and risk-taking. The campus, with its blend of academic rigor and entrepreneurial spirit, shaped his belief that Indians should solve Indian problems with Indian solutions. His conviction that IIT Madras provides the perfect launchpad for building impactful businesses is evident in his continued engagement with the institution and his advocacy for homegrown innovation.
What sets Prashant apart is his contrarian approach to business building - choosing bootstrapping over funding, word-of-mouth over marketing, and employee trust over traditional hierarchies. His philosophy centers on the belief that sustainable businesses are built through solving real problems efficiently rather than burning capital, and that the best competitive advantage comes from deeply understanding and serving your customers better than anyone else.
Today, as someone who has successfully built multiple ventures across different sectors, Prashant continues to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs while actively investing in defense sector startups. His journey from being initially opposed to moving abroad during his IIT days to working at HSBC in Chicago, and then returning to India to build unicorns, reflects his deep commitment to contributing to India's entrepreneurial ecosystem. His story embodies the spirit of IIT Madras - where world-class education meets relentless innovation, creating leaders who don't just succeed globally but choose to build lasting impact at home.
Prashant Pitti
Prashant Pitti is a serial entrepreneur and Co-founder of EaseMyTrip, India's second-largest travel portal and one of the rare unicorns built entirely through bootstrapping without any external funding. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (2001-2005), where he pursued B.Tech in Electrical Engineering, Prashant's entrepreneurial journey spans over 13 years of building successful ventures across travel, fintech, and technology sectors.
His remarkable achievement with EaseMyTrip stands as a testament to disciplined growth and customer-first approach. Starting with just ₹15 lakh of personal capital, he and his brothers built the company into a profit-generating machine that reported ₹107 crores in profit after tax in FY'22, all while maintaining their commitment to not charging convenience fees to customers. This unique value proposition, combined with frugal operations and deep customer trust, helped EaseMyTrip grow at a 47% CAGR from FY16 to FY20, eventually leading to a successful IPO and unicorn status.
Beyond EaseMyTrip, Prashant is the Founder of Optimo Capital, a fintech NBFC focused on serving the underserved MSME market by offering business loans in rural India. His earlier ventures include Profoundly, a social dating app that served 62 million users in the Philippines and America, and pioneering attempts in fitness education and edtech that were ahead of their time.
Prashant's connection to IIT Madras runs deep - it's where his entrepreneurial foundation was laid and where he first experienced the incubation ecosystem under Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala with his venture India Helo. He credits the institute not just for its world-class education but for fostering an environment that encourages bold thinking and risk-taking. The campus, with its blend of academic rigor and entrepreneurial spirit, shaped his belief that Indians should solve Indian problems with Indian solutions. His conviction that IIT Madras provides the perfect launchpad for building impactful businesses is evident in his continued engagement with the institution and his advocacy for homegrown innovation.
What sets Prashant apart is his contrarian approach to business building - choosing bootstrapping over funding, word-of-mouth over marketing, and employee trust over traditional hierarchies. His philosophy centers on the belief that sustainable businesses are built through solving real problems efficiently rather than burning capital, and that the best competitive advantage comes from deeply understanding and serving your customers better than anyone else.
Today, as someone who has successfully built multiple ventures across different sectors, Prashant continues to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs while actively investing in defense sector startups. His journey from being initially opposed to moving abroad during his IIT days to working at HSBC in Chicago, and then returning to India to build unicorns, reflects his deep commitment to contributing to India's entrepreneurial ecosystem. His story embodies the spirit of IIT Madras - where world-class education meets relentless innovation, creating leaders who don't just succeed globally but choose to build lasting impact at home.
