By Saumya Tewari

South Africa’s media conglomerate Naspers’ Indian division Ibibo Group has official declared the acquisition of online bus ticketing portal, RedBus.in for an undisclosed amount. We have earlier reported the development. Ibibo’s CEO and founder, Ashish Kashyap, said that RedBus will keep operating as an independent and separate business.

However, he added that the group plans to bring Redbus into its existing travel portfolio which includes a B2C travel aggregator, Goibibo.com, and TravelBoutiqueOnline, a B2B travel agency platform.Without divulging the financial details of the deal, Kashyap said that the co-founder of RedBus Phanindra Sama will continue to function as the CEO of the company. Various media reports, pegged the RedBus deal amounting around $135 million. 

Ibibo, which is 80 percent owned by Naspers and 20 percent by Tencent with this acquisition will have a stronger presence in the online travel space in India. 

RedBus is backed by Seedfund, Inventus Capital and Helion Venture Partners. The acquisition would mean an exit for them. If the rumoured deal value reported is to be believed, the VC firms would have bagged a multi-bagger exit in the deal.RedBus.in was founded in 2006 and was self-funded by Phanindra Sama, Charan Padmaraju and Sudhakar Pasupunuri.

Speaking on the deal, Mahesh Murthy, Managing Partner, Seedfund Ventures said he is very happy for the RedBus team. (Catch Mahesh's piece on how RedBus.in is innovative here)

The company raised its first capital in 2007 from Seedfund Advisors, an early stage investor and their second investment in 2009 from Seedfund, Helion and Inventus Capital. RedBus today has 400 employees and 18 offices spread across India. The existing investors may exit fully or partly in the latest deal. Currently, the portal claims to issue 10 million tickets with gross sales nearing $200 million annually.