The online travel startup ixigo began in 2007 as a flight meta-search site. As a result, its algorithm would search through websites selling tickets for a certain search query—say, a flight from Delhi to Mumbai—and route visitors to sites like MakeMyTrip (MMT). MMT invested $4.8 million in ixigo in 2011 after seeing synergies in the user journey. With the exception of 2019, ixigo began selling its own tickets in 2019. MMT was able to get an 8X exit earlier this year because of it. ixigo’s next set of plans with the greatest financial chest it has ever had could see it square up against its former shareholder if it completes its 1,600 crores public offering.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India has given its approval for Le Travenues Technology Ltd., which manages the travel platform Ixigo, to raise Rs 1,600 crore through an initial public offering.
According to the preliminary red-herring prospectus, the Ixigo IPO includes a fresh issuance of shares worth Rs 750 crore and an offer-for-sale of equity shares worth Rs 850 crore by current shareholders. SAIF Partners India IV would sell Rs 550 crore in shares, Micromax Informatics will sell Rs 200 crore in shares, and cofounders Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar will sell interests worth Rs 50 crore each as part of the OFS.
The revenues will be utilised to fund the company’s organic and inorganic growth goals, as well as for general business purposes.
About Ixigo
Ixigo, founded in 2007, is the brainchild of Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, who are pushing creativity and an out-of-the-box approach to the organization. Along the way, they were joined by several others who now form the backbone of Ixigo. An enthusiastic bunch of techies, product folks, content curators, marketing gurus, and innovative designers make up our squad.
Ixigo has a dynamic marketing system, customized user feedback, train delay information, airfare forecasts, etc. Every month, they currently witness more than 5 lakh transactions, and they receive a commission on each of them. The ixigo app has an outstanding fully automated customer service system that allows the user via chat or calls to quickly get explanations for their queries.
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IXIGO founders Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar were IIT Kanpur batchmates. They later established a website in 2006 to include the best offers on flight tickets. As a result of the birth of many new airlines, they found the rising demand for it. They both decided to set up a start-up, and this turned out to be a big drive to do so. Ixigo had 1 lakh customers on the platform within six months of their company.
