Online travel aggregator announced its entry into the train food delivery business by acquiring a majority stake in Zoop, a train food delivery service and an authorised IRCTC e-catering partner.
With this acquisition, ixigo now holds a 51% stake in Zoop for a total consideration of Rs 12.54 crore, including a non-compete fee, subject to completion of certain conditions precedent through a combination of secondary and primary share purchases.
Founded in 2016 by Puneet Sharma and Manoj Kumar, Zoop operates at 192 stations across India and has partnered with around 400 restaurants.
On the back of this acquisition, ixigo has launched a new “Food on Train” feature, on its train apps (ixigo trains and ConfirmTkt) enabling travellers to pre-order a wide selection of quality meals at 192 railway stations across India.
The feature allows users to browse and order high-quality meal options, enjoy direct delivery to their seats, track orders in real time, and enjoy free cancellation before the cut-off time.
“The tight integration of the delivery logistics with our large train userbase, the PNR status, and crowdsourced train status data will help us deliver meals efficiently directly to the train berths of our users. This acquisition will open new opportunities for us to deepen our partnership with IRCTC, creating synergies to drive e-catering growth along with ticketing growth,” ixigo Group CEO Aloke Bajpai and Group Co-CEO Rajnish Kumar said in a statement.
Announcing its Q2 FY25 results, ixigo said its revenue from operations rose 26% YoY to Rs 206.5 crore from Rs 163.9 crore in Q2 FY24. It reported an adjusted EBITDA of Rs 21 crore, a jump of 326% YoY.
It also achieved strong cash flow growth from operations at Rs 70.4 crore in H1 FY25, an annual jump of 262%.
They added, “Q2 FY25 has demonstrated our ability to maintain rapid growth despite capacity constraints and seasonality. On flights and buses, we have maintained faster growth than the market, and this quarter highlights what can be achieved through continuous product and conversion improvements, as well as our ability to target NBU demand and leverage synergies across our brands.
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