Ixigo, the Indian travel search service has announced buying mobile content startup Reach in order to branch out into a wider mobile commerce territory.
While the terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, experts familiar with the deal suggest the move was in order to acquire the best talent from Reach. According to this angle, Ixigo plans to use the team to develop new services within its travel ecosystem such as travel recommendations and guides. There is also an entertainment component to the development according to the news. Ixigo co-founder and CEO, Aloke Bajpal, had this to say about the acquisition:
“Our main aim has always been to simplify the lives of travellers. With their [Reach] technology prowess and innovative thinking, together we expect to churn out a lot of smart offerings for our users. Reach brings oodles of enthusiasm along, assuring us and users of some awesome developments ahead.”
Created by two brothers, Abhay and Akshay Pruthi, along with two colleagues, Ashish Kumar and Ayush Verma, Reach has had some success fueld by a $500,000 investment. The service has an app, shares content like audio files, games and other media, all from the user’s smart devices. Reach has been installed up to 100,000 times at the Google Play store according to estimates. estimates that the app had been installed between 50,000 and 100,000 times.
In 2015 Ixigo announced ixigo cabs app topping 200K downloads & 1000+ rides per day via the Google Play store. Ixigo has emerged as India’s cabs meta-search player. The travel search company has received investments from SAIF Partners, MakeMyTrip Ltd. & Micromax Informatics Ltd.