Booking Holdings to invest $250 million in Bengaluru centre of excellence

US-based travel technology company Booking Holdings will inaugurate its second centre of excellence worldwide and the first one in India, at Bengaluru’s RMZ Ecoworld 30, on Wednesday. 

Interestingly, this formal opening is almost a year and half since the centre actually began operations. Having first opened in July last year, out of a co-working space, the unit presently employs 320 people, which is proposed to be ramped up to 1,000 by 2026. 

The company, which is parent to travel aggregators like Booking.com and Agoda, is looking to invest $250 million in building its innovation capabilities in the country between 2022 and 2026, funding workforce and workspace expansion and emerging technology. 

“The CoE will provide access to specialised and highly skilled talent, both functional and technical, to support all the brands within the Booking Holdings umbrella. The centre will also support projects based upon emerging technologies to make the experience more seamless for our customers and partners. The idea is also that with this initiative, it will help the company to accelerate its mission and objective of growth for the future of travel,” Randhir Bindra, CoE lead and general manager for Booking Holdings India, told DH. 

The company is leveraging its CoE in India to build out operations like financial and mobile technology for its various brands, along with data analytics and engineering, and cybersecurity.

Among its plans to scale up next year is building teams for fraud detection and customer relationship management.

Scaling up would also mean a lot of leadership roles will emerge from the country, especially in areas like engineering, research and development, along with functional roles like finance and human resources. 

“One of the beauties of being in Bengaluru is the city’s local tech ecosystem. We are already leveraging local partners who are also our global partners in many areas, including finance, tax, and talent acquisition.

Another aspect of selecting Bengaluru as a location for our centre, is that it attracts talent from other cities, which makes up for 25 per cent of our workforce here,” Bindra said.