Bigtree Entertainment, the India-based operator of online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow, has secured more than Rs 5.5bn ($81m) in a round featuring media company Network18, the Economic Times reported yesterday.
Growth equity firm Stripes Group led the round, which included venture capital firms Accel Partners and SAIF Partners, and which valued Bigtree at more than $440m.
China-headquartered internet company Baidu was reported in January this year to be considering an investment but was not listed among the round’s backers.
BookMyShow allows users to book tickets for films, which represent around 60% of its revenue, as well as live events like concerts, plays and sporting events. It sold a total of 100 million tickets in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016.
The company plans to boost its presence in the online media market by establishing a reviews platform and working on dedicated marketing campaigns for specific films.
Ashish Hemrajani, co-founder and CEO of Bigtree, said: “We will continue to invest in enhancing user experience through our data analytics engine and building contextual entertainment content including videos, reviews, discovery.”
Network18 also took part in the company’s last funding round in mid-2014, a $25m round that also included SAIF and Accel. The latter had already invested $18m in 2012 in a deal that included a secondary share purchase from Network18, reportedly an investor in the platform since 2007.