Cleartrip.com is understood to be readying the platform to raise as much as $50 million through the private equity route. The company has already been backed by some of the blue-chip private equity fund including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sherpalo Ventures, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, besides a strategic investment from US-based Concur Technologies.

The OTA which oscillates between the second and third position with Yatra.com and market-leader Makemytrip-.com, is understood to be in various stages of appointing an investment banker to start the process as per a report in Business Standard.

This move by Cleartrip to look at raising fresh resources comes at a time when goibibo.com, another OTA backed by cash-rich Naspers Group of South Africa, is on an overdrive in India and is fast gaining ground. Independent research reports have indicated that the traffic to goibibo.com has been on a sharp upswing. Cleartrip had last raised $40 million during early 2011 from US-based Concur Technologies, which is a provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions for companies.

According e-commerce sector watchers, a consolidation is inevitable in the OTA sector and it is likely that goibibo.com will lead that. They, however, declined to spell out whether Naspers will look at Cleartrip.

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