“In the short run, the market is a voting machine, but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.”

The observation by American economist Benjamin Graham is more than pertinent for travel tech company EaseMyTrip.

Once a stock market darling with a market cap hovering at around $1.5 Bn (over 12,000 Cr), today many are comparing EMT to a penny stock – a low-value listed company without much upside and too much risk.

The EaseMyTrip stock has slumped dramatically in the past nine months, shedding close to 50% of its value with the market cap down to a shade above $300 Mn (INR 3,040.41 Cr).

But this decline didn’t come out of the blue and symptoms have been apparent for a while. The market had been reacting to months of slowdown in the core revenue generator (air ticketing), seemingly unplanned experiments and new initiatives as well as corporate governance issues.

Amid EMT’s ongoing rough patch (we’ll delve into this soon), founder Prashant Pitti has now stepped down. Nishant Pitti has taken over as chairman and MD. Two promoters – Nishant and brother Rikant – have decided to forgo their salaries for now, as per the company’s latest disclosures.

But there’s a lot more to be understood. What went wrong with this company that once took pride in its superior corporate governance and frugality?

A Bold Bet And The Fall

“Initially, the Pitti brothers built a fantastic business and they could have done a lot better, but it looks like, after a point, they didn’t know what to do with all the money they made at a young age. They kind of lost track,” said an equity analyst, seeking anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Pitti brothers earned tremendous credit in the eyes of the market when they built a bootstrapped travel unicorn and took it public amid a pandemic which crippled the travel sector. That was indeed a bold bet, which paid off in the early days.

Rival MakeMyTrip went public on Nasdaq in 2010, but no Indian online travel aggregator (OTA) took the domestic IPO route until EMT hit the Street.

Its robust fundamentals, steady profits, and clear value propositions helped attract investors. The IPO was oversubscribed 160X and the stock debuted at a 13% premium. It rallied six-fold in the next two years.

Cut to August 2025. The EMT stock hit an all-time low at INR 8.3 after multiple bonus issues and consistent decline. Worse, in Q1 of FY26, the company’s net profit slumped 99% on-year and 97% on-quarter to INR 44.3 Lakh.

EMT’s core air ticket business recorded a weak quarter, with business sinking over 46% to INR 57 Cr and profit drowning 97% to INR 1.3 Cr. In fact, the business has been in a slump for several quarters, which dented its books, dampened investor interest and dragged the shares down.

“The company is taking steps to optimise its receivables cycle and strengthen collections, with measurable........

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