Le Travenues Technology Ltd

Dear Shareholders,

As we sit down to write this first shareholder letter after our successful stock market listing, we're filled with a deep sense of gratitude and pride. FY24 will always hold a special place in our hearts - a year marked by resurgence, growth, and unforgettable milestones. It was a year that created memorable milestones for our company and also inspired us to sharpen our focus and strengthen our path forward.

Our journey of becoming India's leading online travel agency for the "Next Billion Users" has been fueled by the trust and support of millions of travellers who've chosen apps from the ixigo group as their trusted travel companion. We've poured our hearts into building platforms that don't just meet the needs of Indian travellers but truly understand them. From planning to booking and managing trips across rail, air, buses, and hotels, our goal has always been to make travel smarter and more seamless for everyone.

At ixigo, we believe in the power of technology to create meaningful connections. In a world that's rapidly evolving, we see technology as more than just a tool - it's a bridge that brings us closer to our travellers, especially the ones from Tier II & III cities, helping them make informed decisions with ease. We see ourselves not just as a ticket booking portal, but as a travel information, utility, planning and booking platform that remains contextually relevant before, during and after the trip. Our commitment to leveraging artificial intelligence pre-dates its emergence as the next big thing, and we already deploy it meaningfully to make a difference in the lives of the people we serve, our ixigoer family.

Our mission is to make travel as seamless and worry-free as possible, and that's reflected in every product we create. Whether it's ensuring peace of mind with the flexibility travellers need with our free modification and cancellation option, "Assured Flex," or our smart solutions, such as "Train Alternates," designed to help travellers find confirmed train bookings, even when trains on the route are full.

For us, innovation is never about rolling out features - it's about truly understanding and addressing the pain points of our customers and launching products with the pure objective of helping travellers out. This approach not only creates immediate value for our users but also creates long term value for our shareholders. This playbook is hard as there are no immediately obvious benefits to this approach, but many years later when the benefits start accruing, they do so with compounding and deepening our relationship with our users.

Industry & Company Growth

As the Indian travel market grows, online travel is playing an increasingly vital role. As per the WTTC, the sector is expected to contribute Rs. 36.8 trillion to the GDP by 2033, about 7% of the economy. With the government enhancing investments in rail, road and destination infrastructure, the overall travel and tourism sector is expected to continue growing way faster than GDP growth rates, for the decades to come.

We have set new industry benchmarks for transparency by going beyond the norm in our disclosures. We're not just reporting our segment revenue and contribution margins with unprecedented clarity, but we're also leading the way in sharing key customer experience metrics like the percentage of calls answered within 2 minutes and refund processing times.

Our goal is to elevate the standard of transparency and responsiveness in our industry, tackling the pain points that matter most to our customers.

At ixigo, we're deeply committed to making travel simpler and more accessible. Our diverse range of products and services are designed to meet the unique needs of Indian travellers, particularly as infrastructure improves in Tier II and III cities, with new airports, improved railway station infrastructure, more capacity, and better highway connectivity.

Our strategic acquisitions of Confirmtkt and Abhibus have strengthened our presence in train and bus travel, allowing us to serve our NBU travellers better across the country. We have continued to gain steady market share in all three key verticals of flights, buses and trains during the year. Our focus on creating the best possible customer experience has driven remarkable growth as reflected in our financial performance for FY24 - recording

a 38% YoY increase in Gross Transaction Value (GTV), surpassing H10,000 Crore(s). Our revenue from operations grew 31% YoY in FY24 to Rs. 655.9 Crore(s), and Profit After Tax (PAT) grew by 212% to Rs. 73.1 Crore(s). Our operating leverage has started to show in FY24 as we expanded our Contribution Margin to Rs. 293.8 Crore(s) and delivered a robust Adjusted EBITDA of Rs. 55.3 Crore(s), despite our continued investments for longer-term growth.

Our large and loyal user base of 480 Mn annual active users cumulatively across our website and apps has enabled us to introduce new, value-added services, boosting our ancillary attach rate to 31% in FY24. As of March 2024, our group has surpassed an impressive benchmark, with over 76.78 Mn monthly active users. The scale of users we now serve is mind-boggling, with 95.6 Mn passenger segments booked in FY24. Our flights business has also outperformed with 77% YoY growth in passenger segments, reflecting the trend of premiumization as more and more travellers move into the air category with rise in disposable incomes.

Some Thoughts on AI

This year, we also introduced "PLAN by ixigo," our generative AI-based trip planner which helps travellers with curated personalised itineraries and a new and improved version of "TARA," our AI-powered customer service chatbot, which provides realtime support, addressing concerns instantly, on chat, and progressing into being able to do it over voice.

The AI revolution is one of the most disruptive shifts in human history, with more progress expected in the next 5 years than the past 500. As AI infrastructure improves constantly, its integration into operating systems and apps will make customer experiences seamless, intuitive, and pre-emptive. The ability to get answers to any question in realtime on your phone using voice and video as input would account for most of such day-to-day usage. With some open-source models now being as good as proprietary ones,

AI will become more accessible, enabling companies to boost speed, efficiency, and productivity.

In this new world, even those who don't code can launch apps quickly, with AI, using just the language they speak. While this simplifies app development, finding the right problem to solve and building distribution remains challenging. Companies with established distribution channels and brands will benefit the most from AI-driven innovations, as they can reach large customer bases quickly.

As AI becomes commoditized, how we use these models to solve customer problems and personalise experiences will set companies apart. Our strong distribution and top-of-the-funnel advantages position us uniquely in this evolving landscape. However, as we embrace AI for efficiency, we must also invest continuously to stay ahead in this fast-paced environment and build AI expertise within our organisation.

House of Brands Approach

At ixigo, we believe in the power of offering specialised apps that truly understand and cater to the unique needs of different travellers for their dominant use-case. This approach, known as the Multi-Brand or House of Brands strategy, allows us to provide a more personalised and focused experience for each user.

For instance, someone who frequently books bus tickets will find our bus-focused app AbhiBus much more helpful, as it is designed with those specific needs in mind. Similarly, the ixigo trains app or ConfirmTkt app will be the perfect choice for avid trains travellers, offering all the information and services one needs with more localised content and utility features suited to Tier II / III travellers in addition to an enhanced and fast booking experience.

We also know that your travel needs don't stop at just one type of transportation, and people switch modes based on convenience, price and availability. That's why we've made sure all our services are available within each app. So, whether you're using our trains app, bus app, or flights app, you can easily book whatever you need - be it flight, bus, or train tickets - without switching between apps, with hotel bookings available across all the apps as well.

Our Public Debut: A New Era of Growth

On June 18, 2024, ixigo embarked on a new chapter of growth by debuting on the public markets.

We were thrilled to receive an overwhelming response to our IPO, with the issue being one of the most successful ones among new-age tech IPOs, oversubscribed by 98.34 times, fueled by strong demand from institutional, HNI, and retail investors. ixigo closed its listing day with a remarkable 78.2% premium over the issue price, making it one of the strongest openings for an Indian startup on day one as a publicly traded company. This success is a true testament to the trust and confidence our users and shareholders have placed in us. The strong public response to our IPO has made us ever more committed to delivering the best customer experience to every traveller.

Way Forward

We're continuously finding new ways to add value to our growing user base through innovative services and smart cross-selling within our ecosystem. Over the years, our efforts have led to the creation and adoption of our value added services and ancillary products. While we've made significant strides, we know that further growth in this area will be challenging. From here on, we'll rely on AI-driven optimizations to continue enhancing user experience and monetization.

In the flights segment, despite the market's slowing growth towards the second half of the year, we've seen faster-than-market gains in the last two-quarters of FY24. The domestic flight market faces capacity constraints and high fare levels, and while we expect continued growth, we may need to invest more in firsttime booker discounts and branding to keep up the momentum, which could impact our revenue growth in the short term.

On the bus front, there's immense potential, with less than 20% of tickets currently booked online. Although supply growth is slower than we'd like, the entry of new operators such as Freshbus,

Flixbus, and Nuego offers hope.

As the second-largest bus OTA, we're committed to enhancing our product, building trust, and expanding our supply to capture more market share. However, this will be a gradual process, balancing growth with margin considerations.

For trains, we anticipate steady growth and improvements in market share driven by our product, word of mouth and focused branding and user acquisition initiatives.

While capacity increases have been modest, we're optimistic about future expansions with the upcoming freight corridors and new train services such as Amrit Bharat, Vande Sleeper, and Namo Bharat in addition to the increase in number of Vande Bharat trains, which will enhance the travel experience for our users. We also launched our hotel OTA business in December 2023 and have been achieving double-digit monthly growth ever since, albeit from a low base. With the launch of our hotels OTA, there is further scope to cross-sell/up-sell to our captive user base over the coming quarters.

In our business, the most important and strategic asset is talent. We wholeheartedly appreciate and commend our committed team of ixigems for their steadfast dedication and the resilience they have shown over the years. Their tireless efforts have been instrumental in delivering exceptional experiences to our users throughout these 17 wonderful years.

We also extend our sincere thanks to all our stakeholders for their continued trust and support, which have been crucial to our success.

Best Regards,