Indian price comparison and booking platform Ixigo is launching a new business
to develop technology innovations for airlines.
Travenues will operate as an independent subsidiary of Ixigo and will
be headquartered in Bengaluru.
“Consumer-facing technology and product innovation is hard for
airlines to manage since their core business focus is on running planes
efficiently,” says Rajnish Kumar, co-founder and CTO of Ixigo.
“In a fast-growing mobile-first world, travelers expect airlines to
adopt new technology and consumer experiences across pre- and post-booking and
to develop more agility in upgrading their ability to market, sell and
personalize their inventory and inventory from their ancillary partners.”
Ixigo CEO and co-founder Aloke Bajpai says his team has developed
expertise in “mobile-first consumer experiences, growth marketing, personalization,
artificial intelligence and voice assistants” and will now apply that knowledge
to help airlines across the world.
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Travenues says it has one airline partner under contract and is in
talks with others, though it cannot yet release the names.
“Our mission
is to help airlines power their own consumer selling experiences through a
platform that uses the latest deep tech advancements in UX, engagement,
segmentation, targeting, cross-selling, payments, customer service and more,” says
Chandramouli Gopalakrishnan, who
will lead Travenues as its chief digital officer.
“Unlike
technology service providers who currently manage these experiences for them,
we are actual practitioners who have built and scaled such platforms to
millions of daily active users.”
Travenues says in the future its work may expand beyond airlines to other types of travel suppliers, such as hotel and transportation companies.
Ixigo provides price comparison and booking for flights, hotels,
trains, buses, cabs and holiday packages to its 26 million monthly active users.
It is funded by Sequoia Capital India, Fosun RZ Capital, MakeMyTrip Limited and
others.