Micromax invests in mobile travel search provider ixigo

NEW DELHI: Micromax Informatics, India’s second-largest smartphone player, said it has made a strategic investment in ixigo, a mobile travel search & marketplace, as the handset maker tries to create a connected mobile services ecosystem for its devices.

“Our vision is to seamlessly integrate innovative services into smart devices to create an ecosystem that is valuable for our users,” Rahul Sharma, cofounder of Micromax Informatics, said in a joint statement.

“We are really impressed with ixigo’s talented team & its mobile technology. We look forward to working closely with them to build on-demand and one-click travel experiences for Micromax consumers.”

The statement did not provide details of the investment. Sharma said Micromax will announce more such partnerships over the next few months to accelerate its journey into services.

This investment will reinforce Micromax's foray into application services after having pioneered democratization of technology by delighting the consumers with its affordable and innovative product offerings.

It will also give ixigo a reach of over 30 million incremental users over the next year, the company said in the statement.

ixigo, on the other hand, plans to use this investment for expanding its product & technology team and to add 25,000 small and mid-sized travel service providers to its marketplace offering.

“Eighty per cent of our travel & transportation queries and 50% of our transactions currently originate on mobile devices,” Aloke Bajpai, CEO & co-founder at ixigo, said in the statement.

“This partnership with Micromax will strengthen our market leadership in mobile travel services for middle-class users.”