Bringing order in the chaos of traveling is what IXIGO excels at.

People travel all around the world on a daily basis, some more frequently because of work, others simply for fun and relaxation. When traveling, what's most important is to have well-organized and planned transportation and accommodation.

IXIGO is an online-operating travel platform with over 150 million users who can plan, book, and monitor their journeys globally. It features an AI-powered app, and its primary purpose is to give travelers trustworthy suggestions tailored specifically for them.

The online platform was established in 2007 in India by three co-founders: Aloke Bajpai, Dharmendra Yashovardhan, and Rajnish Kumar.

Hectic and unorganized transportation has become India’s trademark. That’s the main reason why IXIGO was founded - to ease transport for Indian citizens. However, none of the co-founders was aware that it would make such a big boom on the market. Stay tuned if you want to know more about it.

Early Days of the Inventors

Aloke’s exact birth date is not known, however, we know it’s somewhere between 1975 and 1978. He was born and raised in India, with quite old-fashioned parents who believed in traditional values. His childhood wasn’t all that easy, since he comes from a small town in India and lived in a modest environment.

As a kid, he dreamed of becoming a chef and was quite a fan of Thai and Italian food since he enjoyed preparing it for his family any time he could. Aloke also liked to read a lot, was interested in many topics of life, and was determined to educate himself and make something of himself, leaving behind the average life he had.

Similar to Aloke, Indian-born Rajnish also had troubles while growing up. His family’s financial state wasn’t ideal. He inherited some of the best characteristics from his father, who thought him to be hard-working and ambitious in life.

Rajnish was a great student in high school and was very skilled in the IT sector. Internet technology was his favorite subject and he often participated in projects revolving around the IT industry which began to expand profusely in the time when he was in high school.

On the other hand, not much is known about young Dharmendra. He was also born in India and was a regular kid who liked to play and interact with his friends. While in high school, he developed a fondness for reading and even wanted to write his own book.

Intertwining Life Paths

Before the inventors founded IXIGO, they had excellent previous work experience which helped them a lot with achieving their dreams of starting a company of their own.

Aloke’s education is very impressive since he went to 3 colleges. In 1997, after completing his secondary education at the Methodist high school, he enrolled at the Indian University of Technology in Kanpur. There he studied Electrical Engineering which was his passion since high school. He holds two Master's degrees, one from INSEAD in General Management, and one from the University of Pennsylvania in VC, Marketing, and Exchange.

After completing his college education, Aloke took a job in Amadeus SAS as a software engineer, and later got promoted to a system and network engineer. He spent 4 years there and later moved on to another company named FinalQuadrant Solutions Ltd. where Aloke served as Vice President.

Just like Aloke, Rajnish finished college at the Indian University of Technology in Kanpur, in the branch of Computer Science and Software Engineering. Both inventors met at the university and became very good friends in no time. In the meantime, while still being a student, Rajnish took an internship at ETH Zurich in data warehouse and modeling.

As a good friend, Rajnish followed Aloke in Amadeus SAS, where he served as a senior software engineer, and later as a technical leader. After that, he spent 7 months as Director at Isango, a software company. Besides IXIGO, he is the co-founder of another enterprise, Travenue,s which was established in 2006 and still thrives.

Dharmendra comes into the story a little later, when he meets Aloke at INSEAD College. He enrolled at the college in 2000, got his Bachelor’s degree, and in 2005, left the university with a well-earned Master’s degree. At the time, Aloke and Rajnish already had the idea to start a company of their own, so when Dharmendra was fresh out of college, they decided to immediately include him in the plan.

The Big Expansion of IXIGO

In June 2007, when the three co-founders created the online company, they made their big boom with the debut of their air travel website. The next year, in 2008, they decided to add something new to the mix and launched a hotel and accommodation section. In the following years, the three entrepreneurs introduced the bus and train ticket purchasing app.

IXIGO is a digital technology firm dedicated to allowing Indian travelers to arrange, book, and manage their journeys by plane, train, and bus. They are determined to help travelers make better travel decisions by employing artificial intelligence and data science-driven technologies across their platforms, which include the website and mobile apps.

Initially, the company’s mission was to become a strictly customer-oriented travel company by providing users with the finest customer experience possible. And, we’re happy to say that they have accomplished their dream, because IXIGO became the best online travel platform in India, and is expanding globally.

Unlike some companies that struggle at first, this one immediately had its big break on the market. As an outstanding accomplishment, the co-founders’ entrepreneurial spirit and enthusiasm played a big part in that success. Since all of them had the ambition to achieve something big even from the time all of them were just kids, the firm never had financial or other kinds of troubles, it only got better.

According to a recent 2018 study, the IXIGO trains mobile app is India's second most downloaded travel app and holds the sixth place for most downloaded Google PlayStore app on a global level.

The firm has been a trailblazer in the creation of revolutionary solutions in the travel market powered by AI, ML, and Voice. IXIGO has also earned a variety of honors and awards, some of which include the Phocuswright people's choice award, and the UI/UX award in 2018.

Funding the Dream

IXIGO has received $72 million in funding across seven rounds. Their most recent capital came through a Debt Financing round on October 20, 2021. Thirteen investors have contributed to the funding of the firm, out of which three are lead investors. The lead investors are Trifecta Capital Advisors, GIC, and Sequoia Capital India.

The company also had some partners in which they invested. On March 3, 2020, IXIGO made a funding investment in gogoBus. Also, the firm has purchased 3 companies recently, and in August 2021 was their most recent purchase, Abhibus.

IXIGO has recently filed for IPO, and the official opening IPO date was somewhere in January 2022. Even though not much information is available about the IPO, in a short time - at the end of February the IPO will close, and we’ll get all the details. However, given the company’s achievements so far, we know many more are to follow.

While on the path of revolutionizing the traveling business, IXIGO had successfully fended off competition coming from companies like Yatya, Cleartrip, and GoIbibo, among others.

IXIGO, Today

Today, the board of directors at IXIGO consists of 10 professionals that aim to expand and improve the online travel company more and more every day. Aloke and Rajnish are still going strong and don’t plan on stopping here, however, unfortunately, Dharmendra has left the company in 2012, after just 5 years with the team.

Headquartered in the same town it was founded in - Gurgaon, Haryana, India, today, IXIGO serves more than 170 million users! Moreover, users and former employees of IXIGO only boast words of praise for the company, giving it credit for the working atmosphere and work culture.

Employing around 250 people, IXIGO is one of those companies that wish to expand even more, without overlooking quality services.

Whatever the future holds for IXIGO, one thing is for sure - it will go down in history as the trailblazer company that decluttered the roads of India.