Gurugram-headquartered travel app ixigo has announced its investment in Delhi-based smart bus startup gogoBus. The company said that it has invested an undisclosed amount in gogoBus’ first round of funding with angels such as Rajesh Sawhney (cofounder and CEO, Innerchef) and Abhishek Sharma (COO, Dineout).
“Ixigo’s business model earlier was a marketplace whereby we worked with several online travel agencies and airline partners and allowed customers to compare and book across all of them. Here we are more natively bookable, so it’s more of an OTA experience then a meta or marketplace experience.”
With this funding, gogoBus has launched operations on multiple routes in northern India and will be expanding its product and technology team. Further, ixigo has picked up a minority stake with its investment and is eyeing growth in the intercity bus business.
India has over 20 Mn people traveling between cities on a daily basis with a majority of 55% using intercity buses, 40% via railways and just 5% split between airlines, taxis and personal vehicles. Inter-city bus travel constitutes a $20 Bn annual opportunity.
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