Finally, Ixigo has submitted its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) to market regulator SEBI to raise Rs 1600 crore via an IPO. Ixigo is dominating the ticketing and train utility sector and competes with listed peers Easemytrip, Yatra, and Booking.com.
Ixigo IPO Details
Artificial Intelligence(AI) based ticketing platform Ixigo is the latest firm that has filed its documents for a Rs 1600 crore IPO. The startup is backed by Sequoia Capital, Elevation Capital (formerly Saif Partners), GIC, and Micromax.
For the last four months, different media portals were reporting about Ixigo’s plan to raise Rs 1500 crore to Rs 1800 crore via its IPO.
As per the DRHP, the IPO will offer a primary issue of Rs 750 crore and Rs 850 crore will be the secondary issue or offer for sale(OFS). OFS issue will mark the complete exit for existing startups including Elevation Capital and Micromax.
DRHP further stated, “In addition, our Company expects to receive the benefits of listing of the Equity Shares on the Stock Exchanges, including among other things, enhancement of our Company’s brand name among existing and potential users and creation of a public market for the Equity Shares in India.”
How are Ixigo’s IPO Preparations?
Founded by Alok Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar in 2007, Ixigo has collaborated with ICICI Securities, Axis Capital, Kotak Mahindra Capital & Nomura as an investment banker that will help the firm in starting IPO. To take care of legal aspects, Ixigo has joined hands with law firms Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Khaitan & Company.
The startup competes with listed firms Easymytrip, Booking.com, and IRCTC. Due to the surge in share prices of Easemytrip and IRCTC over the last 3 months, Ixigo thought to start its IPO as well. Post pandemic, things are improving in the travel sector. Covid vaccination has also helped in travel sector recovery worldwide.
Raising funds, acquiring startups like AbhiBus and Confirmtkt, and welcoming new board members are the three major activities Ixigo has done in the last four months to prepare for its IPO.
Last month, Ixigo closed a pre-IPO funding round led by GIC, Info Edge, Malabar Investments, and White Oak Capital. Orios Venture Partners, Bay Capital & Trifecta Capital also actively participated in the financing event.
Ixigo’s filed DRHP also said, “We are the largest Indian OTA in the online train bookings segment and our train-centric mobile applications, ixigo trains, and ConfirmTkt, were collectively the leading B2C distribution platforms for IRCTC with 42 percent market share, in terms of rail bookings among the OTAs and B2C distributors of IRCTC in Fiscal 2021.”
The travel startup claims that recently acquired AbhiBus is the largest bus-ticketing Online Travel Agency(OTA) in India with a 10 percent market share. Ixigo further added that it has the highest app usage among OTAs with 37.48 million users, based on MAUs in March 2021.
