The ixigo travel portal submitted its draft prospectus on red herring (DRHP) to SEBI a few days ago. The third travel app to go public after MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip, ixigo intends to raise Rs 1,600 crore through its Initial Public Offering (IPO).

With a war chest of Rs 1,600 crore after the IPO, ixigo could be a serious contender for MakeMyTrip in the months to come. MakeMyTrip has already raised funds to support and channel their growth. In 2011, MakeMyTrip invested $ 4.8 million in ixigo. Earlier this year, they came out via a secondary sale after achieving a nice 8X ROI.

Currently, Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) owns a 24 percent stake, SCI Investments 16.02 percent and Gamnat owns 9.89 percent in ixigo. The co-founders, Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar respectively hold 9.18% and 8.79% of the capital. Hyderabad-based Abhibus also owns a 2.31% stake in ixigo. After the IPO, Elevation Capital and Micromax will partially exit.

The company, through its IPO, is seeking to raise Rs 750 crore via a main fundraiser and Rs 850 crore via an offer to sell (OFS) from existing investors. In its DRHP, the company said the proceeds from the IPO would be used to bolster its organic and inorganic growth. In addition, a portion of the proceeds would be allocated for general corporate purposes.

Acquisitions to channel growth

ixigo acquired Hyderabad-based Abhibus for an undisclosed amount earlier this month and a 100% stake in train booking applications company Confirmtkt. With these two acquisitions, ixigo is now the second largest online travel aggregator in India after MakeMyTrip in terms of gross bookings in 2021. EaseMyTrip and Yatra occupy the third and fourth positions respectively.

Although ixigo has not focused on the flight booking space, it still controls a 12% market share. In the train reservation space, it has a 42% market share due to its acquisition of Confirmtkt, and with the arrival of Abhibus, ixigo has a 10% market share in the reservation space. of bus. MakeMyTrip has a 60% market share in the bus reservation space after acquiring RedBus and the lion’s share in the flight reservation space.

The travel booking app wants to be in the right position and not compete with MakeMyTrip because its eyes are on the rail and road travel market. In 2020-2021 alone, 93% of its transactions came from Tier II or Tier III cities. According to its DRHP, of the 100 million trips Indians make every day, 70% are by road and 24% by train and they are betting big on these numbers to fuel their growth to unprecedented levels.