ixigo IPO: Elevation Capital Makes 13X Returns, Peak XV Rakes In Over 8X Gains

With the initial public offering (IPO) of online travel aggregator ixigo, its major early backers Peak XV Partners and SAIF Partners (now Elevation Capital) have lapped up 8.2X and 13X gains, respectively.

ixigo, which is scheduled to list on the exchanges later today (June 18), had an issue price of INR 93 per equity share for the IPO and raised INR 740 Cr. 

Its IPO comprised a fresh issue of shares worth INR 120 Cr and an offer for sale (OFS) component of 6.67 Cr shares. As a part of the OFS, SAIF Partners sold 1.94 Cr shares and Peak XV offloaded 1.3 Cr shares. 

On the day of the filing of ixigo’s red herring prospectus (RHP), Peak XV held a 15.66% stake in the traveltech startup with a total of 5.92 Cr shares. On the other hand, SAIF Partners held a 23.37% stake with 8.83 Cr shares. 

Besides the OFS, Peak XV offloaded almost 70 Lakh shares of ixigo at INR 93 per equity share in a pre-IPO secondary sale on June 6 for INR 65 Cr. Similarly, SAIF Partners also sold 1.07 Cr equity shares worth INR 100 Cr in the pre-IPO round.

As per Inc42’s calculations, the returns made by Peak XV and SAIF Partners on the shares sold by them via the OFS and pre-IPO deals stood at about 8.2X and 13X, respectively.

Besides, Peak XV currently holds 3.91 Cr shares of ixigo, while the number for SAIF Partners is 5.81 Cr.

Meanwhile, Micromax Informatics, another early backer of the startup, also made 10.9X returns on its investment.

Micromax Informatics sold 54.86 Lakh shares via the OFS and 10.75 Lakh shares in the pre-IPO deal.

Founded in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, ixigo initially started as a travel search website, helping users compare flight deals. In FY20, it pivoted to become an OTA, earning revenue from selling various travel services like flights, trains, bus tickets, hotel bookings, and holiday packages.

Also backed by other major names such as Placid Holdings, Trifecta Capital, and Madison India, ixigo raised around $96 Mn in total funding as a private entity across multiple rounds.

A day ahead of the opening of its public issue for subscription, the company raised INR 333 Cr from 23 anchor investors. ixigo’s public issue received a stellar response from its investors and was oversubscribed 98.34X. 

Helped by its clear differentiating factors as an OTA with a major focus on Tier 2 and beyond markets, as well as a focus on the railways, investors were expecting ixigo’s IPO to be successful.

ixigo posted a consolidated net profit of INR 65.7 Cr in the first nine months of FY24, up 3X from INR 23.4 Cr in the entire FY23. Its operating revenue also jumped to INR 491 Cr in the first nine months of the previous fiscal from INR 501.2 Cr in FY23.