Travel marketplace ixigo in talks to raise $75 mn in fresh funding

Le Travenues Technology Pvt. Ltd, which runs online travel marketplace ixigo, said on Friday that it was in talks to raise up to $75 million (around Rs 539 crore at current exchange rates) in a Series C round of funding.

The Gurugram-headquartered company said in a statement that discussions were underway with a clutch of US and China-based investors it did not name. Existing investors Sequoia Capital and Fosun International will also contribute, it added.

Ixigo said the fresh funding was aimed at boosting product innovation, research & development, and brand marketing.

The platform is also looking to ramp up its trains app to drive growth in rail ticketing. Ixigo said it currently draws 20% of its revenue from the segment and hopes to take this number beyond 50% by 2020.

In March last year, the company had raised $15 million (about Rs 100 crore) in a Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Chinese conglomerate Fosun also participated by investing through its unit Fosun RZ Capital.

In 2015, multiple media reports stated that mobile phone maker Micromax had purchased an unspecified stake in ixigo.

Ixigo is also backed by online travel services provider MakeMyTrip and investment firm SAIF Partners.

Ixigo

Founded in 2007 by Rajnish  Kumar and Aloke Bajpai, ixigo has evolved from being a meta-search engine for travel to a travel marketplace. It allows users to compare prices and make bookings across flights, hotels, trains, cabs & destinations from more than 120 travel suppliers and online travel agencies including MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Yatra, Musafir, Cheap Ticket, EaseMyTrip, Booking.com and Expedia. Ixigo competes with the likes of Trivago and Skyscanner.

Ixigo currently claims to have a user base of more than 100 million, 90 million in app downloads and has crossed over Rs 1,000 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV or total value of goods sold). 

The Indian online travel segment is dominated by the likes of MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip and Yatra.

Among recent deals in the space, WoVoyage, a travel startup for women, in August raised an undisclosed sum in seed funding from Singapore-based investors Shabir Momin and Rohit Nanda.

In July, local experiences marketplace Headout Inc. raised $10 million (around Rs 68 crore) in a Series A funding round from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Version One Ventures.