More than 5 Mn people turn to ixigo every day to buy their railway tickets or to track the movement of trains. India has left the glitchy IRCTC experience behind, if ixigo CEO Aloke Bajpai is to be believed.

The OTA platform ended FY25 with a record business of INR 914.2 Cr.

In the bustling ecosystem of platform-driven businesses, ixigo has probably resolved one of the biggest real-world hurdles in India – commuting by train. “Our success stems from our deep-rooted commitment to delivering seamless travel experiences,” chairman and CEO Bajpai said in the ixigo earnings report.

Is the platform taking quiet steps to emerge as a giant in India’s $23.10 Bn online travel market that’s chugging at 7.76% annually to reach $33.90 Bn by 2030? Trust millennials and Gen Zs – the emerging growth engine for the country’s $2.4 Tn consumer market that’s pacing up to be the world’s second largest at $4.3 Tn by 2030.

Out of the 715 Cr passengers who travelled by train in FY25, a record 81 Cr had reserved tickets. Online penetration in train bookings is expected to increase by 86%, faster than air tickets or hotel bookings, where the growth is pegged at 81% and 46%, ixigo said in its investor presentation for the first quarter of this fiscal.

This is the result of 1 Bn-plus smartphone-clad consumer market in a country of 1.4 Bn people, where 24 Mn passengers and 3 Mn Tonnes of freight travel every day by the world’s fourth-largest railway network spanning over 135,000 Km.

And, ixigo was catapulted to be the largest travel tech player in the train booking space, cornering 51% of the market share in the online train ticketing space, along with Confirmtkt. In FY25, 40-50% of its annual revenue came from this vertical alone.

But the journey for the the rail-focused online travel agency (OTA) that had started off as a flight and train search app in 2007 and partnered with IRCTC to add value-added services, acquired smaller travel tech players and boasts off a transaction volume of nearly INR 15,000 Cr hasn’t been a smooth ride.

An increasingly crowded travel tech space in India has the giants like MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip and Yatra with their financial prowess and diversified businesses. The discerning Indian traveller is also turning towards cheaper air travel to save time. Compared to the mightier rivals, ixigo’s disciplined approach to profitability, AI-driven personalisation, and ‘Built for Bharat’ ethos have delivered superior returns and, in turn, set the share price soaring over 200% since the startup went public in 2024.

Inc42 tracked the listed travel tech firm’s growth trajectory to understand its playbook and estimate the challenges as it laid........

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