Ixigo acquires Bus Ticketing Platform Abhibus, Second Acquisition ahead of IPO


Ixigo acquires Bus Ticketing Platform Abhibus, Second Acquisition ahead of IPO

The parent company of the AI-powered travel app ixigo, Le Travenues Technology, has acquired the business and operations of AbhiBus, a bus ticketing and aggregation platform based in Hyderabad. The monetary value of the transaction has not been disclosed.

The company says in a statement that the Abhibus team, led by Founder Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, has merged with the ixigo team, and that all intellectual property, brands, technology, and operations have been transferred to ixigo.

Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, Co-Founders, ixigo states, "By leveraging our combined user base, multi-modal transportation capabilities, tech resources and travel domain expertise we will be able to enhance the experience of millions of travellers in India every day."

According to industry reports, AbhiBus was India's second largest bus aggregator in FY20, selling approximately 26,000 bus tickets per day through its platform.

This transaction will help the ixigo group consolidate its presence in Tier 2, 3 and 4 markets by providing a multi-modal transportation experience across trains, flights, and buses to its combined user base of nearly 255 million people.

Commenting on the acquisition, Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, Founder and CEO, AbhiBus says, "We started AbhiBus with a vision to become India's most preferred bus booking platform. We are happy that we were able to build a motivated, tightly-knit team and we grew rapidly to become one of the leading bus ticketing players in the country."

This is ixigo's second purchase of the year. Confirmtkt, a train booking app, was acquired by ixigo in February 2021.