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    ixigo to get $10-million ticket from Sequoia

    Synopsis

    Marketplace works as a price comparison engine aggregating deals from over 25,000 online & offline providers

    ET Bureau
    BENGALURU: Online travel search marketplace ixigo is raising $10 million in fresh equity funding from Sequoia Capital India, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

    The investment by Sequoia India, follows the recent big-ticket acquisition of another travel portal-Scotland-based Skyscanner-by China's Ctrip for $1.74 billion earlier this month. Sequoia's US arm was also an investor in Skyscanner.

    ixigo is backed by investors including India's largest online travel agency (OTA) MakeMyTrip and smartphone maker Micromax, besides venture capital firm SAIF Partners. It could not be ascertained if these existing investors are participating in this latest funding round as well.

    Ctrip is also an investor in MakeMyTrip, which recently announced the acquisition of its rival, Naspers-backed Goibibo.

    ixigo cofounder Aloke Bajpai and Sequo ia Capital India declined to comment for this story.

    The Gurugram-based company was founded in 2006 by IIT-Kanpur graduates Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, who worked at French travel sector-focussed technology outsourcing firm Amadeus.

    Unlike OTA's which provide their own deals on flights and hotels, ixigo works as a price comparison engine aggregating deals from over 25,000 online and offline travel providers. Users can then book their tickets by getting redirected to agents or websites giving them the best deal, with two legs of a return trip getting booked on different websites. ixigo earns a commission on these bookings.

    Since 2007, ixigo has expanded from flights to hotels, trips, trains, buses and cabs where users can choose best options across multiple service providers. It has a separate mobile application for all of them.

    In August 2011, SAIF Partners and Make MyTrip picked up 76.6% in ixigo for $18.5 million, valuing the company at about $25 million. SAIF bought 56.7% while MakeMyTrip picked up 19.9% then. In June 2015, Micromax picked up a stake in the company by investing about $4 million.

    ixigo's new funding round comes at a busy time for deal making in the online travel space with portal Yatra preparing to list on Nasdaq through a reverse merger. While the industry started ten years ago primarily with flight bookings, over the last few years focus has moved to the high-margin hotel booking business. And entry of new startups like branded hotel network OYO Rooms, which has raised nearly $200 million since the start of 2015 led by SoftBank, has intensified competition in the space.
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