A big one for all ixigo shareholders! 🚀

12 January 2024

​People who wanted to travel to a different city earlier had to go through a rigorous and cumbersome process of ticket booking and sorting out accommodation through offline mediums. This is the problem that two IIT Kanpur alumni have noticed and wanted to introduce a solution by giving a platform to India that could shorten the worries of travelers through innovative travel planning products. This was when Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar founded Ixigo in 2007.

​Some of the main growth highlights of ixigo are👍

​Connects over 80 million travelers
​Has 12+ million monthly active users
​Extracts deals from over 25,000 online as well as offline partners
​Generates more than 1 billion train PNRs every month.
​Has 2+ lakh scores and appraisals of trains and stations
​Boasts of a combined user base of over 255 million users

​What Ixigo has achieved over the past couple of years is nothing short of extraordinary. Let’s take a look at a few pointers to get a brief image of the company’s performance:

​👉 Financials: Ixigo has truly put the pedal to the metal in FY23. Ixigo’s revenue from operations grew to Rs 501 crore in FY23 from Rs 380 crore in FY22, a growth of 32 % y-o-y. 
​👉 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬: Its ROCE and EBITDA margins improved to 6% and 7% respectively in FY23. On a unit level, it spent Rs 0.97 to earn a rupee of operating revenue.
​👉 Operational efficiency: In terms of cash burn related to Advertisement Expenses, there has been a noticeable shift in the company's revenue generation efficiency. While previously earning ~ ₹6.23 for every rupee spent on advertising, the recent figure has seen a decline to ₹5.93. This could be attributed to heightened market competition, prompting the company to adopt a more aggressive marketing approach. Overall, In FY22, the company spent ₹1.06 for every ₹1 of revenue, while in FY23, this expense was reduced to ₹0.97, indicating a more prudent management of cash resources.
​👉 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: It’s worth noting that Ixigo acquired ConfirmTkt in February 2021 and the acquisition seems to have worked well. After this deal, Ixigo emerged as the largest third-party train booking platform. The booking of train tickets was the highest revenue grosser with 61% followed by flight and bus which contributed 21% and 1% respectively.

​What next? Ixigo - Future Plans

​✍ Ixigo is currently looking for an IPO soon. It has already managed to file the DHRP with SEBI and is planning to raise around ₹1600 crore in funding via IPO. It had earlier looked for a valuation of $750-800 mn for the IPO before it filed its DRHP.
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​✍ Outlook: Remarkable growth and lean cost structure helped Ixigo move into the black. With robust travel demand driving its success, Ixigo aims to scale its business to a projected Rs. 700cr. in FY24. The company has also become debt-free & its rising revenues are expected to garner a lot of interest from investors at the time of listing.​