redBus is planning to expand its global footprint with the launch of operations in more than four South and Southeast Asian countries in the next three months.
According to Livemint, the company is also exploring acquisitions and strategic investments to enter these new markets, which are expected to account for at least 5% of the company’s revenue in the next 15-18 months.
The online bus ticketing platform which was acquired by the Ibibo Group, a subsidiary of South African mass media company Naspers for US$100 million in 2013, expanded to Singapore and Malaysia in June last year.
“We want to take redBus to markets which are similar to India, unorganised or semi-organised, where a lot of the booking is still offline. We have scaled up solutions for travellers, bus operators and travel agents. We will be implementing these, market after market,” said Prakash Sangam, CEO of redBus.
Sangam added that the number of bookings on redBus has surged more than three times since its acquisition from 600,000 to 2.1m per month.
Ibibo Group raised US$250 million from Naspers and redBus will spend a significant part of its share of the funds in penetrating deeper into western and northern India, which together account for a quarter of the company’s revenue.
The news site quoted Sangam as saying; “Geographically, we are over-represented in South India. We want our representation to be uniform across the country.”
redBus will also focus on growing the hotels category, a segment which it entered in April 2014. The company currently retails hotels aggregated on Goibibo.com on its platform.
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