Rang7, a widely talked about online travel startup from India in 2009, has disappeared less than a year on from its launch.
The site was the brainchild of Ram Seethepalli, a former senior Travelport exec, but was dogged throughout its short life by confusion over its ownership.
Touted as a Orbitz-Opodo style online travel agency for India, Rang7 was initially thought to be backed by a trio of major Indian airlines, Kingfisher Airlines, IndiGo Airlines and SpiceJet.
Rang7 was seen by some as a strong alternative to the giants of Indian online travel, Makemytrip, Yatra and Cleartrip, which have dominated the marketplace but marginalised some of the low cost carriers in terms of distribution.
Seethepalli's pedigree as an ex-Travelport managing director group vice president in its Cendant days was also seen as a strong indicator that the business would challenge some of the existing companies.
However, the launch of Rang7 was eventually overshadowed by speculation amongst other Indian travel firms and industry watchers about its funding and structure as the three airlines never publicly confirmed their support for the site.
Competing with margins as little as $2 on air fares and staying low-key meant that the company was also unable to attract further investment to push its profile into the mainstream.
Rang7 was eventually pulled from the web last week. Seethepalli has been unavailable to comment.