US-Based Vertex Group To Foray Into India's MICE, Corporate Travel Segment: Founder

US-headquartered Vertex Group is foraying into the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) segment in India with Vertex Travel, Vertex Group Founder & President Gagan Arora said on Monday.

The Group is committing an initial investment of ₹75 crore for developing an integrated business travel and MICE platform which will primarily be deployed across three areas -- technology, talent and network development -- over the next 18 months.

"We will evaluate client acquisition, repeat business, revenue quality, programme profitability, customer satisfaction, technology adoption and the scalability of the operating model. If the business demonstrates the performance and market traction we expect, we are prepared to increase investment as Vertex Travel scales," Arora told PTI in an interview.

He shared that the immediate focus is on establishing strong positions in priority segments, building a high-quality enterprise client portfolio and creating repeatable business across meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions and managed corporate travel.

"We intend to establish a strong presence across India's key commercial centres while progressively expanding into emerging business and industrial hubs. At the same time, we will deepen our international network across Asia, the Middle East, CIS markets and Europe to support Indian enterprises travelling overseas as well as multinational organisations bringing programmes into India," the Vertex Group Founder stated.

The foray in business travel and MICE is part of the Group's broader Vertex 2.0 strategy, which is focused on strengthening global capabilities, integrating its businesses and building a scalable operating model for its next phase of international growth.

The company has appointed Vikram Malik as the Chief Growth Officer (CGO) of Vertex Travel. With experience across the travel and hospitality industry, Malik will spearhead the vertical's growth strategy, industry partnerships and client engagement as Vertex Travel builds its presence across India's corporate travel and MICE ecosystem.

Sharing his vision, Arora said, by 2030, we want Vertex Travel to have a meaningful share of the organised enterprise MICE market and to be recognised among the country's leading integrated platforms in the category.

Vertex Group marked its 10th anniversary with the addition of Vertex Travel and the Group now operates across 10 specialised business verticals: Vertex Global Services, Vertex Next, Vaani Infosystem, Vertex Tech, ILC Solutions, Vertex Learning, VSilverleaf, DK Vertex, T Ventures and Vertex Travel.

Vertex Group has set an ambitious vision to build a diverse team of over 10,000, develop a global network reaching 100,000 professionals, and create 1 million opportunities worldwide, alongside its roadmap to build a ₹1,000 crore global enterprise services business.