No stops for the bus - TicketGoose.com announces 2nd round funding

Wednesday October 30, 2013 , 2 min Read

Just a few months ago, RedBus brought Indian online bus ticketing to global limelight after its acquisition by Ibibo, a subsidiary of South African media and internet group, Naspers. With rumours slating the deal at over $130mn, it was one of the biggest acquisitions in the Indian internet space. Now, this focus seems to be benefitting other players as well. TicketGoose.com, an online bus ticketing portal focusing on South India, has raised second round funding of $3mn from Indventure LLC, a Chicago based investor firm. The first round funding of $1mn (reported then as INR 3cr) came in July 2012, from angel investors who are incidentally, also US based.

Interestingly, it had been reported way back in December 2012 that TicketGoose was aiming to raise its 2^nd round at INR 25cr by mid 2013. While the current deal does fall short of that figure by ~INR 7cr, it definitely increases interest in what is a huge potential market. The total value of bus tickets sold annually is estimated at between 30,000 – 40,000cr, of which only 5-10% is currently done online.

TicketGoose plans to use the fresh capital to improve customer experience through spruced up technology and more value-added services, while expanding geographically. TicketGoose has 130 employees at its offices in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The company is looking to clock a turnover of INR 100cr in the current financial year, which is about a sixth of what RedBus reported as gross value of transactions for the last fiscal. But when over 90% of the market is potentially up for grabs as more transactions move online, it could still be anyone’s game to win.

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