Ixigo, the brainchild of Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, made its debut on the stock market this Tuesday. The co-founders of the travel company shared their journey from a modest one-room office to a valuation of Rs 6,275.87 crore.
Ixigo's humble beginnings are immortalised in a pair of photographs shared by Bajpai. The first image, captioned "How it started…," depicts Bajpai and Kumar in their early days at Ixigo, seated in front of two desktops.
Fast forward nearly two decades, the second photograph, captioned "How it’s going," captures the moment of their stock market debut, symbolising the culmination of years of hard work and resilience.
Shares of Le Travenues Technology Ltd, Ixigo's parent company, soared on their first trading day, closing with a staggering 78% premium over the issue price of Rs 93.
Initially, the platform aimed to be a meta-search engine for travel, directing leads to airlines and other OTAs (online travel agencies). However, this model didn’t gain significant traction in India. By 2017, Ixigo expanded its services to include train bookings, transitioning into a full-fledged OTA by mid-2019.
The road to profitability was fraught with challenges. The company faced turbulent times, burning through cash and even contemplating a sale in late 2019. Yet, their resilience paid off. By early 2020, Ixigo began to break even, marking the start of smoother operations.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, threatened to derail their progress as global travel came to a standstill. Despite this, Ixigo stood by its principles, refusing to lay off staff and fully refunding customers, even non-refundable fees.
Then, Ixigo acquired ConfirmTkt and Abhibus in 2021. These acquisitions bolstered its capabilities and user base, particularly in tier 2 and 3 markets. As travel resumed, Ixigo was well-positioned to capitalize on the pent-up demand, achieving 80 million monthly active users in 2023 and generating over Rs 500 crore in revenue for FY23.
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