Travel app ixigo in final stage talks to close pre-IPO round led by GIC, Info Edge, Malabar Investments, White Oak Capital, others

AI-based travel app ixigo, which counts Sequoia Capital, Elevation Capital (formerly called SAIF Partners) and MakeMyTrip as investors, is in the final stages of sealing a pre-IPO round of around $53 million through a combination of primary and secondary issue of shares, multiple industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Moneycontrol.

The firm is nearing a deal with a set of investors led by sovereign wealth fund GIC of Singapore, they added.

On April 5, Moneycontrol was the first to report that ixigo was planning to go public in 2021 and was looking to raise Rs 1,500 crores to Rs 1,800 crores via the proposed IPO.

Later on April 12, Moneycontol reported that the firm had picked investment banks Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, ICICI Securities and Nomura as advisors for the listing.

“IPO-bound ixigo has held discussions with a consortium of investors led by GIC, Info Edge, Malabar Investments & White Oak Capital and an official announcement on the transaction is expected shortly,” said one of the individuals cited above.

“Other investors who are participating in this fundraising round include Orios Venture Partners, Bay Capital & Trifecta Capital. The funds raised may be used for growth capital and m&a activity by ixigo,” a second individual told Moneycontrol.

A third individual confirmed the quantum of fundraising and the list of investors, adding many of the investors have put in money earlier in recent pre-IPO rounds.

“I- bankers are expecting a combined valuation of $800 mn to $1bn for ixigo as part of its listing plans,” a fourth individual told Moneycontrol.

All four individuals spoke to Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.

Moneycontrol is awaiting an email response from ixigo and the investors and will update this story as soon as we hear from them.

ixigo is gearing up to become the second firm in the intensely competitive travel bookings segment to hit the markets in 2021 after rival Easemytrip got listed earlier in March. Venture capital fund Fosun RZ Capital and Micromax are also investors in ixigo, according to the latter’s website.

The Rs 510-crore Easemytrip IPO was launched on March 19, 2021.  The firm’s stock has soared by 56 per cent in the last 3 months. Meanwhile, the stock of IRCTC has risen by 22 per cent during the same period. Both these cases point to a temporary improvement in sentiment in the travel sector on the back of wider vaccination and “revenge” tourism.

Also Read: Govt should consider re-opening travel for fully vaccinated people, says Easemytrip CEO 

All About ixigo

ixigo, which also competes with the likes of Yatra and Booking.com, helps customers to organise, book and track trips and provides real-time prices and availability for flights, trains, buses, cabs, hotels and destinations. It’s a dominant player in the trains segment and a challenger in the flights and buses category with 36 million monthly unique users across all its apps and the website.

The company was launched in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar. In February, it announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based online train discovery and booking platform Confirmtkt.

According to a recent tweet by Bajpai, for FY20, the cash flow positive Ixigo registered a “net revenue of Rs 153 crores ( 35 per cent YoY growth) and an EBIDTA loss of Rs 5.4 crore (87 percent profitability improvement).”

Prior to this latest fundraising round, the total primary investment raised by ixigo to date was around $22 million and the platform clocks over 5 million downloads every month.