ixigo acquires the Hyderabad-based second-largest bus aggregator

The business transfer agreement includes a mix of cash and ixigo stock as consideration, Le Travenues Technology Limited, the company that operates ixigo, said in a company release on Thursday.

This is ixigo’s second acquisition in 2021. In February 2021, ixigo acquired the train booking app Confirmtkt.

The AbhiBus team led by its founder Sudhakar Reddy Chirra has joined the ixigo team providing also the intellectual property, brands, technology and operations of their enterprise to ixigo.

The long-haul intercity bus market in India was valued at Rs 585 billion in FY2020.

Resumption of bus services and relaxation of COVID lockdowns have led to swift recovery of bus ticketing volumes and the industry is expected to fully recover in the next six months.

As per industry reports, AbhiBus was the second-largest bus aggregator in India in FY20, selling 26,000 bus tickets per day through its platform.

A company official said this deal will help the ixigo group to consolidate its presence in Tier 2/3/4 markets by offering a multi-modal transportation experience across trains, flights and buses to its combined user base of nearly 255 million users, as of May 31.

Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, Co-Founders, ixigo said AbhiBus has built an innovative and high growth company with deep penetration on the supply side across state road transport companies (SRTCs) and private bus operators and on the demand side, as the dominant bus ticketing brand in several Indian states.

Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, Founder & CEO, AbhiBus said they remain committed as a team towards their joint vision of serving the underserved market segment of the next billion travellers in the country, for whom trains and buses are the primary modes of transportation.