redBus is an Indian online bus ticketing platform, providing ticket booking facilities through its

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

and Android mobile apps. It is headquartered in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

and works like a hub, acting as a medium for a network of more than 2000 bus operators, across the countries of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

, and

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

. It claims to have registered over 180 million trips, with a customer base of over 20 million. In 2018, the company achieved a GMV of , with a 70% share in the Indian online bus ticketing segment. In 2013, redBus was acquired by Ibibo Group.

History

redBus was founded in 2006 by Phanindra Sama, Sudhakar Pasupunuri and Charan Padmaraju, engineers from the

Birla Institute of Technology and Science Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a Deemed university in Pilani, Jhunjhunu, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. After expansion to a campus in Dubai, it has b ...

, who also worked together at various organisations before founding the company. With an initial investment of , the founders began operations in 2006, by tying up with various travel agents for seat reservations through the redBus portal. In the same year the company was selected for the TiE

Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

Acceleration Program and was mentored on several aspects of the business. The company owns BOGDS, a cloud computing service for bus operators, and SeatSeller, a GDS for bus inventory distribution.

Operation

In 2014, the company appointed Prakash Sangam as its

Chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, who was earlier the

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o
Info Edge India
(Naukri Group), heading Shiksha.com and

Jeevansathi.com Jeevansathi.com is an Indian matrimonial portalH ...

. In April 2022, redBus appointed

Allu Arjun Allu Arjun (born 8 April 1982) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu films. One of the highest paid actors in India, Arjun is also known for his extraordinary dancing skills. He is a recipient of several awards, including six Filmfare Award ...

, as its

brand ambassador A brand ambassador (sometimes also called a corporate ambassador) is a person engaged by an organization or company to represent its brand in a positive light, helping to increase brand awareness and sales. The brand ambassador is meant to embod ...

Partnership

In 2012, redBus tied-up with Goa State Road Transport to launch an online ticketing portal. In the same year, the company announced a partnership with the

Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) is a public transport company which provides bus services in the Indian state Rajasthan. It is headquartered in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The corporation was established by Government of Rajasthan on 1 ...

(

RSRTC Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) is a public transport company which provides bus services in the Indian state Rajasthan. It is headquartered in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The corporation was established by Government of Rajasthan on 1 ...

), following which it started offering

bus tickets on the portal. Early in 2019, redBus partnered with

Acko General Insurance Acko General Insurance is a private sector general insurance company in India. Founded in November 2016, the company received its license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) in September 2017. Acko follows an ...

to offer

travel insurance Travel insurance is an insurance product for covering unforeseen losses incurred while travelling, either internationally or domestically. Basic policies generally only cover emergency medical expenses while overseas, while comprehensive policies ...

for its users to cover

accidents An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researcher ...

, baggage loss, cancellation and bus-type mismatch. It also partnered with

Truecaller TrueCaller is a smartphone application that has features of caller-identification, call-blocking, flash-messaging, call-recording (on Android up to version 8), Chat & Voice by using the Internet. It requires users to provide a standard cell ...

, to offer bus ticket booking on

Android devices Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computer, tablets. Androi ...

. redBus afterwards announced a partnership with

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

to display information on busses that ply between cities with the time and date services to enhance user experience. June 2019, redBus started ride sharing operations - rPool, across Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad. rPool is an option that helps ride givers to share(pool) their vehicle to fellow ride takers. On 26 November 2019, redBus partnered with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

to launch a bus ticket booking service on Amazon.

Funding

In 2007, redBus received its first round of funding of $1 million () from SeedFund and undisclosed investors. SeedFund had invested $500,000 in the company while other investors accounted for the remaining $500,000 investment. In 2009, the company raised a funding of a $2.5 million from Inventus Capital Partners, Seed Fund and other unnamed

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

s. In 2011, redBus raised another funding of $6.5 million from Helion Venture Partners, Seedfund and Inventus Capital. In 2013, redBus was acquired by Ibibo Group, a subsidiary of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

’s Naspers.

Awards and recognition

* 2012: Named as a Fast Company amongst the world's 50 most innovative companies in 2012 * 2014: ‘Global Mobile Innovation’ in Travel Award by Eyefortravel * 2014: the Most Innovative Company of the Year award by

Business Standard ''Business Standard'' is an Indian English-language daily edition newspaper published by Business Standard Private Limited, also available in Hindi. Founded in 1975, the newspaper covers the Indian economy, infrastructure, international busine ...

* 2015: ‘The Most Trusted Brand’ by IBC InfoMedia in 2015 * 2015: Most trusted brand in the online travel category and the 13th most trusted internet brand in the overall rankings as per the Brand Trust Report, India Study 2015.

External links

*
redRail app

References

{{Travel ticket search engines Travel ticket search engines Indian travel websites Online travel agencies Indian companies established in 2006 Companies based in Karnataka 2006 establishments in Karnataka