BookMyShow In Talks To Raise $60 Mn Funding From TPG Growth

Mumbai-based BookMyShow is in final talks with private equity firm TPG Growth to raise $50 Mn – $ 60 Mn (INR 320 Cr – INR 380 Cr).

As per a LiveMint source, “BookMyShow has been in the market for some months to raise a new round of funding. The talks with TPG are at an advanced stage. TPG is looking to pick up a minority stake of under 10%.”

Another source told LiveMint that BookMyShow might be valued at $750 Mn with this fundraising.

They also suggested that this round of funding will help the company strengthen its leadership position, which was recently challenged by the entry of players like Paytm in the movie ticketing space.

An email sent to BookMyShow did not elicit any response till the time of publication.

BookMyShow was launched in 2007 by Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar, and Rajesh Balpande. It was Network18 which invested in company’s maiden round of funding in 2007.

In 2012, Accel Partners invested $18 Mn in the company. BookMyShow later raised $25 Mn in 2014 in a round led by SAIF Partners that also saw participation from existing investors Accel and Network 18.

The biggest funding for BookMyShow was in July 2016, where it raised $80 Mn from Stripes Group, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, and Network18. BookMyShow was valued at $471 Mn (INR 3,000 Cr).

If the funding goes through, it will be the fifth round of fundraising for BookMyShow.

Growth And Acquisitions Of BookMyShow

BookMyShow is now present in more than 650 cities in the country and serves over 25 Mn customers. An official statement from the company says that BookMyShow has partnered with more than 2,100 food retail to cover combined 6400+ outlets around 1100+ cinemas across these cities.

BookMyShow is one of the largest transacting ecommerce platforms in the country where almost 10 Mn tickets are sold every month. BookMyShow has spread its operations in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates.

In December 2016, the company rolled out a brand-new version of its Android app  v5.0.7, which simplified the interface and catered to users in regional languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and Kannada besides the default English language option.

With the continuous growth of the company, BookMyShow has also been actively taking over the companies.

In January 2017, the company acquired MastiTickets which has a stronghold in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Soon after, BookMyShow acquired a majority stake in Townscript, a DIY event registration, and ticketing portal. This acquisition was to strengthen the ticketing requirements of small and medium events such as workshops, marathons, trips, college festivals etc.

Next, in July 2017, BookMyShow acquired Burrp, Mumbai-based local food and recommendation portal. BookMyShow had then reasoned this acquisition saying, “movie going in India is a social activity and food is an integral part of it.”

In August 2017, the company acquired nFusion, an IT consultancy and infrastructure company. It was meant to strengthen BookMyShow’s music streaming service offering, JukeBox.

TPG Growth is a middle market and growth equity platform of American alternative asset firm TPG and a regular investor in the Indian consumer space.

TPG currently owns a majority stake in companies such as Bengaluru-based Rhea Healthcare Pvt. Ltd, Surgical equipment maker Sutures India Pvt. Ltd, India-focused cancer treatment chain Cancer Treatment Services International and Lenskart, an online eyewear retailer and more. In 2017, TPG Growth had also invested $50 Mn in Dodla Dairy.

BookMyShow has so far grown well in a price sensitive market like India, where the Indian millennial has accepted to pay for the convenience its platform provides. Apart from several acquisitions, the news of Flipkart exploring a partnership with BookMyShow also surfaced last year, indicating that the company is now trying to explore new avenues of growth too.

In September 2017, BookMyShow even collaborated with messaging service WhatsApp to send ticket confirmation to its users and became first Indian online ticketing brand to participate in the WhatsApp business pilot. If BookMyShow gets the funding boost from TPG Growth at this stage, it will be interesting to watch what new direction the company will acquire to increase its market share in India and other markets.