Online travel marketplace ixigo’s revenue rises sharply in FY19

Online travel marketplace ixigo recorded a sharp rise in revenue in the financial year 2018-19.

In a statement, the Gurugram-based company said that it clocked net revenue of Rs 113.5 crore for the year ended March 2019, up from Rs 67.73 crore in 2017-18.

Ixigo, however, did not provide details about its gross expenditure and net losses. The company is yet to report its full financials for 2018-19.

“A big driver of growth has been ixigo Trains, which is India’s most-downloaded travel app, and the sixth most-downloaded in the world, as per Sensor Tower,” said Rajnish Kumar, co-founder and chief technology officer of ixigo.

The company also stated that it had recorded Rs 1,584 crore in gross transaction value (GTV) in 2018-19 and will cross an annual GTV run-rate of Rs 2,000 crore at the end of the current financial year.

Gross transaction value refers to the total value of merchandise sold over a given period of time through a customer-to-customer exchange site. The gross transaction value is calculated before the deduction of any fees or expenses.

ixigo

Founded in 2007 by 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.

The company said that it has 30 million monthly active users, primarily driven by its mobile audience. Likewise, it claims to have recorded three million in daily active user numbers and its mobile app has recorded a total of nearly 130 million downloads. The company hopes to cross 50 million monthly active users within the current financial year.

Last November, it said that discussions were underway to raise up to $75 million (around Rs 539 crore then) for its Series C round of funding. At the time of the announcement, it said that potential investors would be a clutch of US and China-based investors. However, it added that existing investors Sequoia Capital and Fosun International will also contribute.

ixigo had said that the Series C round would be aimed at boosting product innovation, research & development, and brand marketing.

The company has raised close to $40 million till date from the likes of Sequoia Capital. Chinese conglomerate Fosun, MakemyTrip,  BAF Spectrum, Cocoon Capital and Tigris Capital, among others.