Ixigo: How It Made Travelling Easy!
📄Company Profiles
People who wanted to travel to a different city earlier had to go through a rigorous and cumbersome process of ticket booking and sorting out accommodations through offline mediums. What the country really needed was a portal that could shorten the worries of travelers through innovative travel planning products. This was when Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar founded Ixigo in 2007.
Ixigo, through its website and numerous mobile apps, wipes out the need for tourists to go through loads of information plus online travel contracts and facilitates curating a travel plan for satisfying and enjoyable experiences. It basically aggregates and then compares variants like real-time travel information in terms of prices and the availability of flights, trains, buses, cabs, hotels, packages, and destinations.
With Ixigo travel solutions, railway bookings, flight bookings, and the bookings of bus tickets, hotels, and more have been a cakewalk.
Read more about the Ixigo Founders and Team, Business Model, Revenue Model, Funding, Growth, etc in the article ahead.
Ixigo - Company Highlights
| STARTUP NAME | IXIGO |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Gurgaon, Haryana, India |
| Sector | Travel |
| Founder | Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Website | ixigo.com |
Ixigo - About
Ixigo - How it Works?
Ixigo - Founders and Team
Ixigo - Startup Story
Ixigo - Mission and Vision
Ixigo - Name and Logo
Ixigo - Services
Ixigo - Products and Features
Ixigo - Business Model
Ixigo - Revenue Model
Ixigo - Challenges Faced
Ixigo - Funding and Investors
Ixigo - Investments
Ixigo - Acquisitions
Ixigo - Growth
Ixigo - Partnerships
Ixigo - Sponsorship
Ixigo - Marketing Campaign
Ixigo - Awards and Achievements
Ixigo - Competitors
Ixigo - Future Plans
Ixigo - About
Ixigo is India's leading online plus mobile travel search plus planning website. A one-stop solution for travelers, it aggregates as well as compares the finest deals on hotels, flights, buses, trains, plus packages, and reviews the best travel facts from around 100+ travel websites to extend the most reliable travel information for the users.
Ixigo - How it Works?
Ixigo stands out as a premier travel platform, boasting a stellar 4.6-star rating from the Google Play Store. It, a well-known exploration app with an easy-to-use UI and objective findings, has had two sister apps before. While the other helped consumers find relevant apps and discounts across e-commerce, hyperlocal services, online travel, and food delivery through advertisers, the former enabled contextual brand outreach to train passengers.
Notably, users could easily schedule interstate ride-sharing through BlaBlaCar with the Ixigo Trains app. This was especially helpful when there were limited train options or waitlists for tickets. Using this diverse strategy as a foundation, Ixigo has combined all of its services into one main app.
Shubham Kumar
Ixigo - Founders and Team
Rajnish Kumar and Aloke Bajpai are the Co-Founders of Ixigo.
Aloke Bajpai
Aloke Bajpai is the Group CEO, Managing Director, and Co-Founder of Ixigo. An IIT Kanpur BTech Electrical Engineering alumnus, Aloke Bajpai, obtained an MBA, General Management from INSEAD and then an MBA, Exchange from The Wharton School. Bajpai started his career as a Software Engineer at Amadeus SAS, who was eventually promoted to the post of Sr Systems and Network Engineer.
He then served as the Vice President at Final Quadrant Solutions before launching Ixigo in 2007. He is also serving as the Director in Freshbus and Director in Confirmtkt.
Rajnish Kumar
Rajnish Kumar is known as the Group CPTO & Co-Founder of Ixigo. Like Aloke, Rajnish is also an IIT Kanpur alumnus from the Computer Science & Engineering department. He also interned at ETH Zurich in Data Modelling/Warehousing and Database Administration.
Rajnish also worked at Amadeus SAS as a Software Engineer and was then promoted to Sr. Software Engineer and Technical Lead. He then joined as a Director of Development at Isango! Kumar finally decided to found Travenues or Ixigo in 2006.
Ixigo was last reported to have close to 51-200 employees as per LinkedIn.
Ixigo - Startup Story
The entrepreneurial bug was always there inside the IIT Kanpur wingmates-cum-colleagues, Aloke and Rajnish. However, they were somewhere trapped in the 35-hour per week work rule at the French corporate Amadeus. To disentangle themselves from the clutches of the work life, both of them decided to leave their high-paying jobs in Europe and returned to India in 2006, fully geared up to follow their dreams. They rented a studio apartment in Gurgaon and set up their workplace.
In the initial phase, the Ixigo founders didn't have a clue of what they were going to do with the entrepreneurial itch that they nurtured, but soon they found out how painful was making travel bookings for several destinations in India was. This gave them the impetus to start up with a travel meta search website for flights in India in 2007. For a year, they worked with no salaries. Over their persistence, ixigo was born.
The only passion behind the company was the vision to build a product to help Indian travelers search and compare hotel information at the same place online and make their lives relatively easier. It was launched in a nascent online travel segment that has since thrived to become one of India's most viable companies.
Vidhi Punamiya
Ixigo - Mission and Vision
"At ixigo, corporate social responsibility lies at the center of our vision and mission", says the ixigo website.
The Gurgaon-based traveltech startup mainly focuses on empowering the Indian travelers to plan, book and manage their trips effortlessly whether it is the railways, airways, roadways or hotel stays.
Ixigo - Name and Logo
Ixigo - Services
Ixigo Flight Booking Services enables the users to easily book, and monitor flights through the Ixigo app or its website.
Ixigo has already acquired Confirmtkt, and with this app and its inherent app, Ixigo enables fast, easy, and guaranteed booking of train tickets.
Ixigo helps the users book buses in an instant via its bus booking services, which is now available on its app itself.
For Ixigo Hotel Bookings, Ixigo has partnered with Booking.com. Though Ixigo doesn't directly handle the hotel bookings, it facilitates easy and affordable booking of hotels via its partner Booking.com, where the users are redirected as soon as they click on Ixigo Hotels option.
Ixigo - Products and Features
Ixigo has various products and features. Some of the prominent products and features are:
PLAN
On July 10, 2023, Ixigo unveiled PLAN, an intelligent travel planner powered by OpenAI, a startup that conducts AI research and deployment. Through the utilization of OpenAI's ChatGPT API, the platform is able to effectively process and comprehend customer preferences, providing them with customized suggestions, itineraries, and recommendations. Additionally, Ixigo is now the only travel agency in India to offer the Ixigo ChatGPT plugin.
bhAI
On April 1, 2023, the travel app introduced bhAI, a new AI-powered headset. This "first-of-its-kind" Bluetooth headset with AI, according to the manufacturer, is intended to help travelers.
Ixigo - Business Model
Ixigo’s business model is compatible with an airport's requirements since it allows an unbiased comparison of all the available choices, aiding the travelers in deciding which website they should book through, rather than hanging midway in the deal. It mainly serves as an intermediary between the user and a travel booking website and earns commission on each booking.
Besides, the innovative features, for example, the 180-day fare viewpoint, direct booking of airline tickets through the website, and the feature-rich hotel exploration mechanism make this portal tremendously user-friendly. Ixigo’s meta-search business model associates travel contracts from 100+ travel sites and have aided millions of explorers to save time and money on their trip.
In April 2016, it also launched a meta-search application for cabs, which was initiated to generate revenue for the company. As an extension to revenue generation, the company also has an in-app booking alternative that permits the users to book on their website itself using a third-party power-driven app.
Chayanika Goswami
Ixigo - Revenue Model
Ixigo makes revenue from different resources; some of the prominent ones are:
Reservation Fees:
By charging customers for the reservation of different transport services, such as bus, train, and airline tickets, Ixigo makes money.
Revenue from Rail Tickets:
Ixigo offers consumers a convenient platform for making rail travel reservations, with a substantial percentage of its revenue coming from fees associated with reserving train tickets.
Revenue from Airline Tickets:
By charging customers a fee to buy airline tickets, the platform meets the varied travel demands of its user base and generates revenue.
Revenue from Advertising:
Through partnerships with advertisers, Ixigo expands its revenue stream by showcasing bargains and pertinent material to its user base.
Ixigo - Challenges Faced
Ixigo faced a number of obstacles with its user engagement approach, especially with regard to concentrating on the instant activity that happens after downloading an app. The business noticed a drop in user activity at this critical juncture and set out to redesign the onboarding process to guarantee both a strong initial impression for new users and long-term retention.
Ixigo also attempted to employ technology to evaluate the influence of complex design and personalization on email and push notification conversions, realizing that a careful balance was necessary to properly increase user engagement.
The decline in first-time consumers' repeat transactions was another major obstacle for Ixigo. The difficulty was figuring out how to enhance the initial experience before, during, and after the booking process, since this was crucial in getting customers to do additional transactions.
In order to overcome the obstacles encountered and guarantee a smooth, user-centered experience, Ixigo had to proactively manage these digital touchpoints in the world of online contacts, where emails functioned as the starting point for user conversations and conversions.
Ixigo - Funding and Investors
Ixigo has raised a total of $72 million in funding over 7 rounds. The last round that Ixigo had seen came on October 20, 2021.
Here is a list of all the funding to date:
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 20, 2021 | Debt Financing | - | Trifecta Capital Advisors |
| July 27, 2021 | Series C | $53 million | GIC |
| March 22, 2017 | Series B | $15 million | Sequoia Capital India, Fosun RZ Capital |
| November 29, 2016 | Venture Round | $10 million | Sequoia Capital India |
| June 23, 2015 | Funding Round | $4 million | Micromax |
| August 11, 2011 | Series A | $6 million | SAIF Partners, MakeMyTrip |
| February 1, 2008 | Seed Round | $500K | BAF Spectrum |
Ashwini
Ixigo - Investments
Ixigo made two key investments: on November 1, 2022, it contributed to FreshBus during a seed round, and on March 3, 2020, it participated in the capital round for gogoBus. These expenditures demonstrate Ixigo's dedication to promoting innovation and expansion in the travel and associated industries.
Ixigo - Acquisitions
Ixigo has acquired 3 companies to date.
Here are the details:
| Date | Company Name | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| August 5, 2021 | AbhiBus | - |
| February 4, 2021 | Confirmtkt | - |
| January 11, 2017 | Reach App | - |
Chayanika Goswami
Ixigo - Growth
Some of the main growth highlights of Ixigo are:
- Connects over 80 million travelers as of May 2023
- Has 66 million monthly active users as of May 2023
- It had over 6 million daily active users as of May 2023
- It is growing at a velocity of over 8 million downloads as of May 2023
- It has a run-rating 50 million bookings on a yearly basis
Financial
Expenses
Ixigo total expenses rose from Rs 380 crore in FY22 to Rs 484 crore in FY23.
EBITDA
| Company Name | FY22 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| EBITDA Margin | -3% | 7% |
| Expense/Rs of Op Revenue | Rs 1.06 | Rs 0.97 |
| ROCE | -5% | 6% |
Ixigo - Partnerships
Ixigo has partnered with a number of organizations to date. Some of its partnerships/collaborations include:
- Partnership with Flipkart to enhance the Flipkart flight bookings
- Partnership with Indira Gandhi International Airport to help the passengers with the airport's website.
- Ixigo partnered with Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) to help set up, design, configure, and maintain a ‘Unified Ticketing Solution’ (UTS) on the Cloud Platform of APSRTC.
Ixigo - Sponsorship
On August 21, 2023, India's travel booking platform revealed that it would be the Men's Asia Cup 2023's "official sponsor." Ixigo has never before been connected to a significant athletic event of this kind.
From August 30 to September 17, 2023, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will jointly host the Men's Asia Cup.
Ixigo - Marketing Campaign
Ixigo - Marketing Campaign
This campaign brings back memories of the train era when we witness an astronaut outside the spacecraft waving a tea kettle, floating, and exclaiming "Chai Chai" after a tea vendor, just as we frequently do on buses or trains.
Ixigo - Awards and Achievements
Here are some highlights of the awards and recognition that Ixigo has gained thus far:
- Won the Bronze Abby at the Goa Fest 2014 for its famous ‘don't travel Patti bandh ke’ television commercial.
- Felicitated with a gold at the Indian Digital Media Awards (IDMA) 2014 for its PNR status app
- Received a silver Echo award in 2014 by the Direct Marketing Association International (DMAI) for the brand’s efforts in content marketing
- Has been recognized as the fastest-growing travel company in India in the Economic Times' 2020 growth champions report
- Featured in the Discover Channel's 'India Startup Stories' as a leading startup
- Declared as the winner of the New code of Work Awards in the mid-size business category
- The media company, Skift, recognized Ixigo among the 6 best homegrown online travel players in the Indian travel sector
Ixigo - Competitors
Ixigo has a whole lot of competitors in the market. Starting from a private applications like MakeMyTrip, GoIbibo to government applications like IRCTC train booking, the market is filled with online booking and transaction-facilitating portals. With it, indulging in both conveyance and accommodation, the range of competitors it faces gets doubled.
Ixigo - Future Plans
Ixigo, a prominent online travel aggregator in India, has re-filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) with SEBI on February 14, 2024, indicating its intention to go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), marking a key step toward its ambitious goals for the future.
The IPO is set up to comprise a new offering of 120 crore rupees, highlighting Ixigo's calculated decision to raise money for more growth and development. In addition to the new offering, 6,66,77,674 equity shares are part of an Offer for Sale (OFS) component that gives current shareholders, such as SAIF Partners, Peak XV Partners, Micromax, and others, the chance to sell their shares.
Notably, with a net profit of Rs. 65 crore in the third quarter of 2024, Ixigo stands out as a unique and successful company in the Indian online travel tech startup scene. Ixigo's strong financial results set the company up for growth, innovation, and sustained profitability as it prepares to go public and establish itself as a major player in the travel technology industry.
FAQs
What is the Ixigo app?
If you are wondering about the Ixigo app, then this app will help you find your travel solutions. The Ixigo app will help you monitor and book flights, trains, buses, hotels, and more.
How to create account on Ixigo?
Creating an Ixigo account is really easy. For this, one just need to Sign up on the Ixigo website or via the Ixigo app, and then register themselves on Ixigo. After this is done, followed by some other verifications, he/she would be able to login to the Ixigo portal and go about their bookings.
Who is the Founder of Ixigo?
Rajnish Kumar and Aloke Bajpai are known as the Ixigo Founders.
How much is the operating revenue of Ixigo?
Ixigo witnessed a growth in its revenues, which was recorded at operating revenue of Rs 501 crore in FY23 and was earlier reported to be Rs 380 crore in FY22.
How does ixigo make money?
Ixigo mainly serves as an intermediary between the user and a travel booking website and earns a commission per booking. Ixigo’s meta-search business model associates travel contracts from 100+ travel site
How much Funding has Ixigo raised?
Ixigo has raised a total of $72 million in funding over 7 rounds. Their latest funding was on October 20, 2021, from a Debt Financing round.
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