Paytm Acquires Chennai-based Online Movie Ticketing Platform TicketNew for $40M
Paytm, the brand owned by One97 Communications Limited, India’s leading mobile payments company has acquired Orbgen Technologies Private Limited, the entity that operates TicketNew, a Chennai-based online ticketing platform.
The deal size is around $40 million. Last year, TicketNew had raised Rs 1.2 billion from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. With this acquisition, Paytm hopes to take on major players such as BookMyShow which has so far dominated the online movie ticketing space. And this acquisition will help Paytm to attain leadership status in south India.
Paytm Entertainment has increased its online penetration in India by more than 50% and is India’s fastest growing entertainment ticketing platform. It has built a strong business in South India and is working exclusively with iconic single screen theatres & regional multiplex chains including Suresh Productions, V Celluloid, SVC and Anusri Cinemas among others.
Recently, Paytm Entertainment also announced a ticketing partnership with SPI Cinemas, which owns landmark properties such as Sathyam Cinemas, Le Rêve, The Cinema, in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer, and SVP, Paytm said, “We are on a mission to be the one-stop destination for all movie and entertainment ticketing needs. It is our goal to be the leader in every city in India and offer the opportunity to all cinema partners to reach Paytm’s customers. TicketNew founders have built a fantastic business in South India and share the same partnership mindset as Paytm. Under their leadership, Paytm is seeking to connect TicketNew partner cinemas to Paytm’s more than 300 million customers and further invest in helping grow their occupancy and revenues. With this acquisition, we have taken a step closer to our goal of making Paytm Entertainment the No. 1 player in this space.”
Paytm Entertainment entered the events ticketing space in March 2016 and since, has emerged as one of the leading players in India. In July 2017, Paytm acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, an events ticketing platform, to address the rapidly growing live entertainment space in India. Since this acquisition Paytm has successfully ticketed over 8000 events with over a million tickets sold. Paytm and Insider’s events platform now sells India’s largest collection of events across music, sports, comedy and other lifestyle categories.
Paytm has sold over 38 Mn tickets in FY ‘18 alone, and is aiming 2x growth in ticketing volumes by end of FY ‘19 – making it the dominant player in the online travel booking space. Today more than 85% of all travel bookings come from the app, and its travel offerings are vastly popular across the metros, mini metros as well as tier 2 and 3 cities such as like Jaipur, Indore, Vizag and Lucknow among others.
Paytm is founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma and is headquartered in the National Capital Region, India. The company’s investors include Softbank, SAIF Partners, Alibaba Group and Ant Financial.
