Ixigo, the India-based online travel platform, has raised $146 million from technology investor Prosus.
Netherlands-based Prosus, which gets a 10.1% stake in Ixigo, made the investment through its venture capital fund MIH Investments One.
Ixigo said it plans to put the investment towards organic growth opportunities, inorganic growth opportunities and general corporate purposes.
Up to 25% of the proceeds of the investment will go towards organic growth opportunities including new artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, products and services, technology including cloud infrastructure and advertising and branding initiatives.
A further 25% will go towards acquisitions, mergers, joint ventures and strategic investments.
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The remaining 50% will be divided between working capital requirements attributed to the growth of Ixigo’s OTA business and general corporate purposes including employee and other personnel expenses.
Ixigo listed on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange in June 2024.
Ixigo described the company as "at an inflection point in fulfilling its vision of building the best customer experience for travelers and the immediate opportunity is to invest deeply in emerging agentic AI capabilities."
"The dawn of an AI era presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reimagine our company's AI-native future. Companies that will succeed in the next decade will look very different from those that exist today."
It also said there was a "narrow window in which companies need to combine their deep tech DNA and proprietary data with disciplined investments in disrupting themselves, and the winner will be rewarded disproportionately in terms of growth and operating leverage."
This is the second high profile travel industry investment Prosus has made recently with the company announcing its acquisition of Despegar for $1.7 billion in December 2023.
Prosus’ portfolio spans a number of sectors including e-commerce, food delivery, travel, payments and fintech and advertising. The company has previously invested in a number of companies in India including Goibibo, prior to its acquisition MakeMyTrip in 2016. Elsewhere the company has an investment in China-based Tencent.
A statement on the investment said Prosus has been “a pioneer in AI-led innovation globally, with a sharp focus on companies that are reshaping industries.”