Why did Micromax evince interest in ixigo?

NEW DELHI: Handset maker Micromax Informatics is investing in a mobile travel search and marketplace, ixigo, and this would be the second strategic investment by the company in a start-up.

The investment figures were, however, not revealed by the companies.

Micromax had annnounced its undisclosed investment in Bengaluru-based company HealthifyMe last month. It also said that the company will be making investments of 0.5-20 million dollars in over 20 startups in the coming year.

According to analysts, the move by Micromax will help to create a mobile services ecosystem and is a step to make it a full-fledged service provider company.

"The investment in ixigo will further reinforce Micromax’s foray into application services after having pioneered democratization of technology by delighting the consumers with its affordable and innovative product offerings," a statement said.

Micromax has also set up an M&A team, which is working with startups across major technology markets such as Silicon Valley, Europe, Israel and India to bring in the best products and capabilities.

Popular for its innovative travel apps, ixigo helps Indian travellers plan their trips, find the best trainand bus services, book cheapest flights, cabs, hotels and more. The deal will give ixigo a reach of over 30 million incremental users over the next year.

Rahul Sharma, Co-founder, Micromax Informatics, said, “Our vision is to seamlessly integrate innovative services into smart devices to create an ecosystem that is valuable for our users. We are really impressed with ixigo’s talented team and its mobile technology. We look forward to working closely with them to build on-demand and one-click travel experiences for Micromax consumers. We will be announcing more such partnerships over the next few months to accelerate our journey into services.”

Kumar Shah, Head of Strategy and M&A, Micromax Informatics, said, “Travel and transportation is one of the most important and frequent use-cases for mobile users and we are excited to partner with ixigo to create a deeply integrated and embedded experience for our consumers. We love ixigo’s passion for making the lives of Indian travelers simpler by aggregating meaningful content and building intuitive experiences that save people’s time and money. This is our first growth-stage investment and we look forward to partnering with exciting ventures from around the world to improve the experience of Micromax consumers.”

Aloke Bajpai, CEO and Co-founder, ixigo, said - “We share a common vision of a connected ecosystem of travellers who can access & consume travel content ubiquitously on their phone and compare and book across a bouquet of travel service providers seamlessly. Eighty percent of our travel and transportation queries and 50% of our transactions currently originate on mobile devices. This partnership with Micromax, the leading smartphone OEM in India, will strengthen our market leadership in mobile travel services for middle class users. We expect to quadruple our mobile user-base in the next 12 months.”