BookMyShow Valuates at ₹3000 crores at the end of 4^th of round investment

BookMyShow, the online ticketing giant has closed its 4th round of funding with Stripes Group, a US-based VC firm. The investment was of ₹550 crores and lead by STRIPES group, US . With this BookMyShow, a Big Tree entertainment asset has been successful in pushing its valuation to ₹3000 crores. BookMyShow(BMS), not only covers ticketing services for movies or theatres, its live event ticketing grosses well too. Venture capitalists look for something beyond simply money making

BMS as a leader in online ticketing

Online Ticketing is a fast growing domain and as of now, with little to almost coherently less competition, BMS is leading a market which is almost a monopoly. The last financial year has been beaming at BookMyShow as there were about 675 crores of tickets were sold. While more than 135 crore tickets were sold using their online wallet, BMS sees this as a great domain to expand.  This is where investors are interested too. When any company shows a promise of domain expansion and a profitable dominance over that particular domain, it’s always a fruitful venture to them. But when you look at it, wallets has always been a thing for PayTm, Freecharge, Mera Events etc.,

PayTm has lost no time and is already on the growing front partnering with theatres and cinema halls trying to associate with them for selling tickets. But as of now, a majority of this competitive space is being named BMS.

Will PayTm make it out as a bigger thing than BMS in this sector? Did the STRIPES Group look into this aspect as well? These are the bedtime questions raised by none and also answered by none.

“It has been a great 4 years of association with BMS. They are all hailed for their unique customer experience for all their services. The incoming funds will be of great help for them creating an even more great place for all the shareholders, customers and partners alike” Says Prashanth Prakash, Accel Partners. While firing cupid arrows at everyone works really well, BMS at the same time is good at leveraging the best of the investors and this is best seen by a statement given by their CEO, Founder Ashish Hemrajani. “When we look at our investors we shamelessly look at leveraging their strength”.

While a good ₹127 crore has been the revenue for the last financial year, this year’s revenue is unknown. This also raises a question of when will the investment by the STRIPES group will be recovered and will reach the breakeven point at least.

In a statement to the press, it has been revealed that this is the first investment by the STRIPES Group in the Indian market.” We are really excited and are happy to be associated with the Big Tree Entertainment and their group of investors” says Dan Marriot. Mr Marriot is the managing partner for the STRIPES group.

What next?

Expanding its domain of operations,(recently to Indonesia and soon towards Sri Lanka) the timing for the funds entering BMS is excellent. “The funds which are flowing in will be best utilised for better and best customer services, as well as technology associated with the same”, Says Hemrajani. BookMyShow is all on expansion and looking for a greater user experience tools and further penetration into the tier 2 and 3 cities where they see a great scope of expansion. But will BMS stand its position as an almost monopoly with the ever increasing competition and market stances?