After months of speculations and rumors, the entertainment ticketing platform ‘BookMyShow’ has managed to mint fresh money in its latest round of funding. In one of the biggest funding rounds of the year, the company has managed to snag over Rs. 550 crore(or $81 million).
The funding round — as speculated in reports earlier — was led by the New York based PE and VC firm Stripes Group. It also saw the participation of all existing investors, including Network 18, Accel Partners, and SAIF Partners. This latest round of funding bumps the platforms value to over Rs. 3,000 crore.
Commenting on the utilization of freshly infused funds, Ashish Hemrajani, CEO and cofounder, BookMyShow, adds that,
We will continue to invest in enhancing user experience through our data analytics engine, and building contextual entertainment content including videos, reviews, discovery.
In addition to this, Hemrajani now believes that the company has enough capital to invest in strengthening its top leadership positions. This process will be undertaken in the next three years of operation.
The latest round of funding raised by Bigtree Entertainment-owned ‘BookMyShow’ is almost double the total amount of funds that the company has raised since its inception. Prior to this investment, the ticketing platform had raised over Rs. 150 crore from SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Network18 Media. The total capital that has now been invested into the company amounts to over Rs. 800 crore(or $124 million).
Expressing his excitement on becoming a part of BookMyShow, Dan Marriott, Managing Partner, Stripes Group
Already the clear leader in movie and live event ticketing, BookMyShow is uniquely positioned to tap into India’s digital advertising and entertainment markets, which are among the fastest growing globally.
While Deepak Gaur, MD, SAIF Partners adds that,
The current round of investment will further allow the company to make key investments in newer domains and enhancing the depth and coverage of entertainment needs of Indian consumers.
BookMyShow, a ticketing platform launched in 2007, now gets over 60 per cent revenue from movie ticketing, and the rest 40 per cent from sports, live shows and plays. In addition to this, the company has managed to double the number of tickets sold in FY16 to over 100 million, and plans to follow a similar growth trajectory in the future.
The company has also recently launched various overhead services for the benefit of their users, including a partnership with Uber and a coupon service in partnership with major fast-food restaurants. It is now also looking forwards to step into the business of content offerings, such as videos on actors and films and other information lying in the same genre.
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