When a guest books a Marriott hotel room, the platforms behind the booking may have been built in Hyderabad, by Marriott's own engineering centre in India.
This Parent Industry holds the companies that fit no other:
hotel chains
airlines
commercial-property firmswhich manage offices and other buildings for other companies
the resta law firm, two nonprofits, and a few centres whose job is to build start-ups for someone else
The first three groups have two things in common. They were the last large industries to open engineering centres in India. And they came big: the three largest centres here are all only a few years old, and two of them are among the largest new GCCs in any industry.
Only foreign companies are covered here. Travel and property themselves, from the booking to running a building, are explained in the product-companies collection. "Where this industry is explained", at the end, says where.
These companies skipped the early stages of the arc. They did not come to India to run their systems or to test them, because that work had long been handed to IT services firms. They came in the 2020s, straight to building the platforms their businesses now run on. The GCCs here do two kinds of work:
- Building the parent's apps and platforms (stage 3)
- The whole engineering function, moved here (stage 4)
These companies skipped the early stages of the arc, whose work had long been handed to IT services firms. Marriott and Southwest Airlines build apps and platforms, and Delta Air Lines, JLL and CBRE hold the whole engineering function.
Every centre named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Companies not placed under a mandate are listed at the end, in The names with a desk here.
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Five more sections are on this page: Why the hotels, airlines and property firms came, Building the parent's apps and platforms, The whole engineering function, moved here, The names with a desk here, and Where this industry is explained. Sign in to read them here, in full.
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Why the hotels, airlines and property firms came
They came late, because their businesses were slow to become software. And they came all at once, because when it happened, it happened to all of them.
Hotel chainsA hotel's product used to be a room and a loyalty card. Now it is also a booking platform, an app that opens the room door, and a pricing engine that sets the room rate. A chain that rents that software from others can lose the guest to whoever owns it.
AirlinesThe same story, with a seat instead of a room.
Property firmscame for a different reason. Their business is managing buildings for other companies. The data about those buildings, such as their energy use, how full they are and their leases, became a product they could sell.
All three industries opened Indian centres in the same few years, most of them in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
A hotel's product used to be a room and a loyalty card, and is now also a booking platform, a door-opening app and a pricing engine; airlines tell the same story with a seat. A property firm's business was managing buildings, and the data about them became a product it could sell.
The companies are:
Hotel groupsMarriott, Holiday Inn Club Vacations and Karma Group
AirlinesDelta, Southwest and United
Commercial-property firmsJLL, CBRE, Newmark and Greystar
Travel companiesTravelopia, Flight Centre and Jet2
The restFirst American, a title insurer that protects home buyers against problems with a property's ownership. Neighborly, which runs home-services franchises. Clifford Chance, a law firm. The venture builders Blenheim Chalcot, bp Launchpad and Techgrove. And two nonprofits.
Building the parent's apps and platforms
Stage 3 of the arc · capability phase
The hotel chains and airlines came for this stage.
Marriottin Hyderabad, is the largest centre in this Parent Industry, and one of the largest new GCCs in any industry. Called its technology accelerator, it is only a few years old. It already builds the chain's backend platforms, its business systems and its security: the software a global hotel business runs on.
Southwest Airlinesin Hyderabad, is newer and smaller. Its work is platform infrastructure and AI, rather than apps. It was built for the newest part of the airline's software, not the oldest.
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The whole engineering function, moved here
Stage 4 of the arc · transformation phase
Three companies came straight to this mandate. As everywhere, one building holds the parent's oldest systems and its newest work, and the name on the door does not say which floor a job is on.
Delta Air Linesin Bengaluru, is the largest airline centre here, and one of the newest. It holds the app engineering, the business systems and the testing of a very large airline together.
JLLin Bengaluru, is the property firm's technology arm. It does as much AI and model work as app work, because the data about buildings has become a product.
CBREJLL's rival, is in Hyderabad and Delhi NCR, with a team in Bengaluru. Its work centres on business platforms and the infrastructure under them.
The names with a desk here
These companies are not placed under a mandate here. They are of three kinds.
Companies with a first team here
Travel companiesUnited Airlines, in Bengaluru, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Karma Group, Travelopia, Flight Centre, Delta Vacations, and Jet2's travel-technology arm. United's Indian technology centre, in Delhi NCR, is large.
Property firmsNewmark, Greystar and Provident Real Estate
Neighborlythe home-services franchise company
First Americanthe American title insurer. Its Bengaluru operation is one of the older and larger back-office GCCs in the city.
Venture-builder centres. A venture builder is a company that starts and grows new start-ups itself. Its Indian centre builds software for start-ups that someone else owns. It is the GCC of a group of companies, rather than of one industry.
A venture builder starts and grows new start-ups, and its centre in India is a shared engineering team that builds software for the start-ups in its group, which makes it the GCC of a group of companies rather than of one industry.
Blenheim Chalcot Indiain Mumbai, builds for the British venture builder's start-ups.
bp Launchpadin Delhi NCR, was the oil major bp's start-up arm.
Techgrovein Bengaluru, builds software for the software companies owned by Banyan, a Canadian company that buys them.
Pfi Innovation Centre Indiain Delhi NCR
South Park Commonsa community for start-up founders from Silicon Valley
Organisations that are not companies
Clifford Chancethe law firm, with a small technology team in Delhi NCR and Hyderabad
MOURI Tech Foundationthe charitable arm of an IT services firm
Swastia public-health nonprofit that works in Indian clinics and communities
The late arrival that skipped the early stages.
Marriott's Hyderabad centre and Delta's Bengaluru centre are the clearest cases of parents opening in the 2020s straight at the platform and whole-function stages, at a scale the older GCCs took decades to reach. JLL's centre shows the property firm becoming a data company. AI is also taking over pricing: a hotel's room rate, an airline's fare and a building's energy bill used to be set by analysts, and are now being set by AI models. A new kind of centre has appeared too: the venture builder's, the GCC of a group of start-ups rather than of one industry.
Where this industry is explained
The product-companies collection explains what these companies do:
Industry Vertical 29, Travel techonline travel agencies, travel distribution and airline software, corporate travel management, hotel management software, and tech-led hotel chains and travel operators
Industry Vertical 41, Proptechconstruction tech, property and facilities management, and real estate portals and mortgage tech
Industry Vertical 43, Legaltechthe law firm's world
Industry Vertical 44, Govtech and nonprofitsthe nonprofits' world
The hotels, airlines and property firms here buy from those companies. Their new Indian centres are where they have started to build instead.
That is the GCC of the late arrivals: hotels, airlines and property firms that came to India in the 2020s, straight to building their own platforms.