Exclusive: Ahead Of INR 1,600 Cr IPO, ixigo CFO Steps Down

Ahead of its INR 1,600 Cr IPO, travel aggregator Ixigo has appointed Rahul Gautam as its Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective from May 5, 2022. Gautam, who earlier led corporate finance and investor relations at PVR, will replace the startup’s existing Group CFO Ravi Shankar Gupta. 

Gupta, who was appointed last year as the Group CFO of ixigo, has stepped down due to personal reasons. Inc42 couldn’t ascertain what will happen to the 400 shares which he holds in the startup, as per its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) filed last year.

As per the company, Gautam will lead the finance function for ixigo with specific focus on corporate finance and corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, public markets and investor relations, growth, risk management and financial reporting. 

Prior to his stint with PVR, Gautam worked with SBI Capital Markets Limited, Religare Capital Markets Limited, and Deloitte Haskins. 

 ixigo, which received markets regulator SEBI’s nod for IPO in December last year, is now back on track for its public listing in the coming months. 

Le Travenues Technology, which operates ixigo, filed its DRHP on August 13, 2021. The Gurugram-based startup’s IPO offer will consist of a primary component which will include an issue of fresh shares worth INR 750 Cr and an offer-for-sale (OFS), for allowing existing investors to offload their shares, of INR 850 Cr. 

The issue will give a partial exit opportunity to early investors like Elevation Capital (earlier called SAIF Partners) and Indian smartphone manufacturer Micromax. 

Cofounders Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar will also offload shares worth INR 50 Cr during the IPO. 

Inc42 had earlier reported that online travel aggregator MakeMyTrip made 8X return on its investment in ixigo recently. The Nasdaq-listed company exited ixigo when it closed a pre-IPO funding round worth $53 Mn, led by Singapore-based sovereign fund GIC along with participation from other investors.  

As per its DRHP, ixigo posted a profit of INR 7.5 Cr in the year ended March 31, 2021 (FY21) as compared to a loss of INR 26.6 Cr in FY20. The startup’s revenue rose to INR 138.4 Cr in FY21 from INR 112.9 Cr in FY20. ixigo’s total expenses declined marginally from INR 139.5 Cr in FY20 to INR 135.6 Cr in FY21. 

Founded in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, ixigo aggregates and compares real-time travel information, prices, and the availability of flights, trains, buses, cabs, hotels, packages, and destinations. The company has divided its apps based on user-interest — ixigo train app and ixigo flight app.