ixigo To Raise Stake In Train Food Delivery Startup Zoop

Online travel aggregator ixigo is increasing its stake in the train food delivery platform and its subsidiary Zoop Web Services by 11% via a secondary share purchase worth INR 3.25 Cr. 

In an exchange filing, the company said that it would buy 1,717 shares from Zoop’s founders Puneet Sharma and Manoj Kumar Singh. The acquisition is expected to be completed by September 30.

Notably, ixigo acquired a 51% stake in Zoop in October 2024. At the time, it said it has the option to purchase the remaining stake in Zoop, subject to fulfillment of certain conditions. 

Founded in 2014, Zoop is an IRCTC-authorised food delivery aggregator. It operates at 192 railways stations across India and has partnered with around 400 select restaurants. Following the majority stake acquisition in Zoop, ixigo launched its ‘Food on Train’ offering.

As per the filing today, Zoop generated a revenue of INR 10.90 Cr in FY25, up 42% from INR 7.66 Cr in the previous fiscal year.

ixigo announced the stake acquisition along with its Q1 financials. In Q1 FY26, Zoop crossed 10,000 daily meal deliveries with over 20 Lakh meals served across more than 200 stations since October 2024, ixigo claimed.

ixigo’s consolidated net profit rose 27% to INR 18.9 Cr in Q1 FY26 from INR 14.9 Cr in the year-ago period on the back of a sharp increase in its revenue. 

In the first quarter of the ongoing financial year, ixigo’s operating revenue surged 73% to INR 314.5 Cr from INR 181.9 Cr in Q1 FY25. Sequentially, the topline expanded 11% from INR 284.1 Cr it posted in Q4 FY25. 

Founded in 2007 by Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar, ixigo initially started as a travel search website to help users compare flight deals. Later, it pivoted to become an OTA which lets users book flight, train and bus tickets, hotels, and holiday packages.

In October last year, Bajpai said that Zoop’s acquisition would enable ixigo in enhancing the experience of its train users. 

“…The tight integration of the delivery logistics with our large train user-base and the PNR status and crowdsourced train status data will help us deliver meals efficiently directly to the train berths of our users,” he said.  

Subsequently, ixigo launched a “Food on Train” feature on its train apps enabling travellers to pre-order meals for delivery to their seats at stoppage stations. 

Back then, the OTAs chief financial officer (CFO) Saurabh Singh said that the overall size of the food delivery opportunity to rail passengers exceeds $1 Bn based on Zoop management estimates.

He also mentioned that the overall train food order market in GOV terms could expand 10-15 and can help the company in monetising the train users better. 

Last month, VC firm Elevation Capital, formerly SAIF Partners India, offloaded over 53.98 Lakh shares of ixigo in a block deal worth INR 97.44 Cr. 

Prior to that in May, the VC firm offloaded more than 21.5 Lakh shares of online travel aggregator in a block deal worth INR 38.27 Cr. 

In the travel tech space, ixigo competes with the likes of MakeMyTrip and EaseMyTrip. 

Shares of ixigo ended the trading session today 1.7% up at INR 179.10 on the BSE.