To aid the global expansion of its bus ticketing platform, Ibibo-owned redBus.in is now tapping the potential of the Latin American market. As announced today, it has acquired a majority stake in Peru-based online bus ticketing startup Busportal.
The terms of the agreement haven’t been disclosed by either of the two parties. With this acquisition under its belt, redBus has now penetrated a large but undermined bus ticketing market. Busportal wil not only give the company access to cities, like Peru, Colombia and Chile but will also leverage its local market expertise to the well-established Indian brand.
Commenting on the partnership, Hassan Bourgi, Co-Founder, Busportal says that,
redBus’s entry in the region will benefit the overall online ecommerce market. We are very enthusiastic about scaling up the platform with the support of the most innovative company in the industry.
Post acquisition, the company will continue to drive operations in Peru and will further expand into Columbia and Chile in coming months. Busportal will now be able to leverage redBus’s technology, product and brand name to expand and streamline revenues in these markets.
We are excited to partner with Hassan and Carol to expand redBus into Peru, Columbia and Chile. The founders have demonstrated deep insights in building their startup, BusPortal. We believe that this will be a strong combination of local knowledge and the robust global platform and technology of redBus.
adds Ashish Kashyap, Founder and CEO of ibibo.
Founded in 2012 by Hassan Bourgi and Carol Riboud, Busportal operates on a model quite similar to that of redBus. It allows users to compare and purchase bus tickets using their online ticketing platform. According to Crunchbase, the company has previously raised about $200k in an angel round of investment.
Post its $100 million acquisition by the IbiboGroup in 2013, redBus has been insistent on growing its presence across global markets. In addition to Latin America, the company has recently also launched operations in Singapore and Malaysia. It has now joined the likes of Zomato and Practo who’ve been crossing off countries one after the other.
Also, redBus is now focusing on building and expanding on its hotel category in partnership with its parent entity’s subsidiary — goibibo.com. The company also claims that it is now successfully converting over 2.1 million transactions per month, as compared to the measly 600,000 it used to complete before its acquisition in 2013.
