China’s internet giant Tencent and South Africa’s media powerhouse Naspers are doubling down on tech in India. TechCrunch has just found out that Ibibo, their domestic joint venture, has acquired redBus.in, an online bus ticketing company that has become a dominant and disruptive force in how people travel in the country. A formal announcement is coming out shortly.
Ibibo tells us that the terms of the deal are not being disclosed, but there have been rumors of an acquisition in the works for some time, with prices in the region of around $133 million. The acquisition is interesting not only because it signals more activity for Ibibo, 80% owned by Naspers and 20% by Tencent; but also raises questions of whether the two plan to take Redbus’s platform and business model to new markets, like China for example.
Ibibo’s CEO and founder, Ashish Kashyap, confirmed to TechCrunch that the company will keep redBus running independently and operating as a separate business. It plans to bring Redbus into its existing travel portfolio which includes a B2C travel aggregator, Goibibo.com, and TravelBoutiqueOnline, a B2B travel agency platform.
He also reiterated that Phanindra Sama, the co-founder and CEO of redBus, will be staying on and running the business under the new owner. “Yes. Absolutely. He is going to continue to participate with me and continue his role as the CEO of redBus.”
Rumors have been swirling for the past week on Redbus’ acquisition, since a NextBigWhat report quoted a source saying a buy-out was on the cards for an estimated $133 million (800 crores).
As Drew pointed out when he visited redBus in February, the company has been one to watch. Its chief product officer, Alok Goel, is an ex-Googler who approaches the business of organizing how people find and pay for bus tickets to a new level of big data. You can see how this model could be subsequently applied to the same situation further afield, or to different problems altogether.
If that is a problem that ambitious redBus — and now its ambitious owners Tencent and Naspers — want to tackle, it could be some time before that happens. “The Indian online bus market itself is under penetrated at less than 6 percent,” Kashyap told TechCrunch. That means more room to grow at home first.
There is also the case with platforms. For now the majority of redBus’s busines is online; the company only really started to make a push on mobile in February. With India one of the world’s fastest-growing smartphone markets at the moment, this could present a new spurt of growth and opportunity for the company.
More to come.
