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.
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.
However, a certain amount of funding from several investors in India was planned by the founders. Owing to the lack of sufficient financing, their company was crumbling financially. It was during the same time that the founder of BAF Spectrum, William Kliggpen, sold his company to Yahoo!. He then moved to Singapore and decided to invest the money in potential start-ups. William was approached by Aloke, and they soon shook hands with an investment scheme. The company soon witnessed an improvement in its market, and the number of users in the previous year was twice as high.
After releasing its first flight merchandise in 2007, ixigo extended its services to other locations. Presently, for all types of travel facilities you need for your tour, you can depend on ixigo. While the website covers all the facilities, depending on the purpose, ixigo has three separate applications available on Google Play Store, namely, ixigo flight bookings, ixigo trains, and ixigo cabs. Due to the popular demand for trains, the ixigo trains app sees the highest operation among them, while it is the ixigo flight booking app that achieves the highest margins. Ixigo’s most significant assistants are:
- Ixigo flights– It is one of the company’s most basic facilities. Booking a flight with Ixigo is an easy process, and they often make numerous offers and deals. To find the best option for you, all you need to do is type in your destination, date, and class preference, and ixigo searches through various flights.
- Ixigo Train-Ixigo trains now make it easier than ever to book a train ticket. The train can be checked for by name or number and the PNR status can be viewed. There is also a seating schedule, station status, running status, etc. on the ixigo app. In 2014, the ixigo app for trains was launched.
- Ixigo hotels– During your journey, this service allows you to find the hotel of your choosing. Ixigo makes it easy to book a plethora of hotels in all the country’s major cities. You can check the destinations, the hotels near you, or the trending ones according to them.
- Ixigo bus– You can also conveniently book bus tickets via ixigo. They also have different cashback deals and discounts. In 2008, the ixigo app provided the booking of hotels and buses.
Ixigo eventually welcomed an investment of 18.5 million dollars from SAIF Partners and MakeMyTrip in 2011, despite much hesitation to conclude a deal with other investors. Later in 2015, Micromax informatics, the smartphone brand, gave ixigo an undisclosed amount of funding. In 2017, Ixigo carried out a series B financing led by Venture Capital company Sequoia Capital India and Fosun RZ Capital in which they obtained USD 15 million.
Ixigo was recently scheduled to raise 25 crore rupees from Amar Ujjala Limited, an Indian media firm, in April 2020. Since the Ixigo company has been impacted by the pandemic and the consecutive lockdown, they have limited the payment of their workers to help the company. During a time when the future seems uncertain, this recent funding would be beneficial for their required expenditures and capital expenditure.
