Travel search engine ixigo acqui-hires content sharing app Reach

Travel search engine ixigo has acqui-hired mobile content sharing app Reach, the firm said in a statement. The financial terms of the deal are not disclosed.

As a part of the deal, the Reach team will join ixigo to enhance its existing products and also help with consumable content for the travel space, it said.

Acqui-hire refers to the buyout of a company primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff, rather than for its products or services.

"By on-boarding the Reach team, we are taking our vision of empowering every Indian traveller with trustworthy and personalised travel recommendations a step further," said Aloke Bajpai, co-founder and CEO, ixigo.

Reach was founded by Akshay Pruthi, Abhay Pruthi, Ashish Kumar and Ayush Verma in March 2015.

In March 2016, the startup had secured $500,000 (around Rs 3.3 crore) in a funding round led by Japanese VC firm Rebright Partners with participation from early stage investment firm Sol Primero, Sudhir Anandarao (entrepreneur in residence at Bessemer Venture Partners), Ankur Warikoo (CEO of Nearbuy), Ankur Singla (CEO of Helpchat), and a few other angel investors including Durgesh Kaushik, Pritesh Gupta and Anunay Gupta.

Reach app allowed users to discover music, apps and free games from their friends' network. It enabled users to send requests and get permission to access friends' mobile collection to listen to music selected by them for free and install the apps they use.

"With our understanding of consumable content, we saw a natural connect in working towards the development of smarter offerings for travellers. At ixigo, we will continue our journey of creating cutting edge technology while catering to the content and entertainment needs of travellers," said Akshay.

Ixigo was founded in 2007 by Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar. It has evolved from being a travel search engine to a travel marketplace where customers can avail themselves of hotel deals and real-time fares as well as book cabs and gain access to travel content across travel sites.

In November 2016, The Economic Times citing unnamed sources reported that the company was in talks to raise $10 million (Rs 68.5 crore) from Sequoia India.