MAM
Treebo acquires events and experiences company events high
MUMBAI: Treebo today announced its acquisition of Events High, a marketplace for experiential events and activities for an undisclosed amount. Events High’s acquisition is strategically aligned with Treebo’s mission to become India’s most loved travel network by delivering delightful experiences to every traveller. Events High offers customers information on, and ability to book activities like treks and hikes, cooking classes, dance classes, concerts, heritage walks, nightlife, etc. in 8 cities – Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Goa. The move will effectively enable Treebo to enter the thriving events and activities segment which is estimated to be ~$180B in size globally, and ~$5B in India. Post the acquisition, Treebo has absorbed the entire Events High team.
Commenting on the acquisition, Treebo, co-founder, Sidharth Gupta said, “We are on a mission to offer delightful experiences to travelers and build the most loved travel network. Over the last 3 years, we have made the first big leap in fulfilling this mission by offering great quality hotels at affordable prices. We are now making another move in the same direction by offering curated local events and activities to our customers through Events High. Experiencing these local activities is a core part of people’s travel plans. More so now than ever before, people are keen to buy ‘experiences’ not ‘things’. Moreover, with nearly hundred percent offline bookings, fragmented and unorganised supply, and yet a large demand among travelers, this industry has similar characteristics to what the hotel industry had 10 years ago. We saw a great opportunity to use technology to capture the untapped potential of this space through Events High.”
He further added, “We are excited to have Nikesh, Arvind and the team onboard. They come with strong tech experience having worked with the technology giant like Google and Walmart Labs in the US. Their solid domain expertise and consumer understanding reflects in the strong product they have built.”
Events High, backed by Axilor Ventures, was started by Nikesh Garera and Arvind Batra in 2016. Nikesh & Arvind have a strong background in machine learning and big data. They both were a part of the Kosmix team in Bay Area, that was later acquired and became Walmart Labs. The duo moved to Bengaluru couple of years back with Walmart Labs and started Events High.
Events High, co-founder and CEO, Nikesh Garera said “Customers value engagement & unique experiences, and Events High has always been committed to curate these experiences and make them discoverable. We have seen an explosion in demand and supply of experiences, with Events High achieving more than 1.5 million organic unique users per month and 10x growth in bookings in the last year alone. Stay is an integral part of the huge number of travellers who attend such experiences, and with Treebo we share the vision to offer delightful experiences to such travelers. In the end, both the activity and the stay play a major role in the entire lifecycle for the traveller, and with Treebo we are excited to have a complimentary partner and are uniquely poised to comprehensively address this gap in the market.”
Globally, interest in the activities and experiences space has piqued recently with several players taking bets by either building this offering organically or investing in existing companies. Airbnb launched Experiences last year, Marriott invested in activities metasearch platform PlacePass, and Booking Holdings acquired activities distribution software provider, FareHarbour. Viator (owned by TripAdvisor), GetYourGuide, and Klook are the other companies active in this space globally. This market, however, has been mostly unpenetrated in India. With the acquisition of Events High, Treebo will now be one of the major early movers in this space.
MAM
Three senior OpenAI infrastructure executives join Meta
Key members of Stargate project move to rival amid aggressive AI spending race.
MUMBAI: Three key architects of OpenAI’s ambitious data centre plans have switched sides and joined Meta Platforms, according to people familiar with the matter. Peter Hoeschele, who played a central role in OpenAI’s high-profile Stargate initiative, is among the new hires. He is joined by Shamez Hemani, who focused on computing strategy and business development, and Anuj Saharan, another leader in the computing organisation. The Information first reported their departure from OpenAI on Thursday.
The moves come as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to spend aggressively on AI infrastructure. The company is projecting capital expenditure of up to $135 billion this year alone, with hundreds of billions more expected before the end of the decade to support its Meta Superintelligence Labs and new models such as Muse Spark.
OpenAI, which is pushing ahead with massive data centre expansion, had described its early lead in securing computing power as a competitive advantage. Stargate, originally announced last year as a $500 billion venture involving OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank, has since become an umbrella term for the company’s broader data centre ambitions. However, the project has seen recent adjustments, including a pause on its UK plans and the decision not to expand the Abilene, Texas site.
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment, while Hoeschele, Hemani, and Saharan also declined to comment. OpenAI said it was grateful for the contributions of the three employees and remains focused on hiring talent for its infrastructure plans. The company recently brought in former Intel executive Sachin Katti to lead its industrial compute efforts.
In the high-stakes race to build the future of artificial intelligence, talent is proving to be as valuable as computing power itself. Meta’s latest hires suggest the competition for top infrastructure minds is intensifying, even as OpenAI continues to scale its own ambitious projects. The move highlights how quickly the AI talent war is heating up across Silicon Valley.
