BookMyShow eyes unicorn status with fresh $100 Mn round led by General Atlantic

In the race of unicorns, we may see another consumer internet company joining the coveted status with fresh capital infusion and some secondary share buyout. We are talking about BookMyShow, one of the largest companies in online movie and entertainment ticketing space.

Exactly after a year of raising $100 million Series D round at about $800 million valuation, the Ashish Hemrajani-led company is eyeing another $100 million at over $1 billion valuation.

The deal may see complete exit by SAIF Partners, which holds 5.6% stake, and a partial exit by Accel India, reports TOI.

According to the report, private equity major General Atlantic will lead the round in participation with Temasek and Goldman Sachs, who in total looking for 10-12% stake in BookMyShow.

SAIF, which is also an investor in BookMyShow's arch-rival Paytm,  is expected to get a 4X return from the transaction while Accel is expected to make more and still retain a large part of its stake. The obvious reason behind SAIF's complete exit is a conflict of holding the stake in the Alibaba-backed firm.

Apart from existing investors, several employees are also likely to get liquidity with this deal.

The fresh deal will provide shot in the arm to BookMyShow that has been looking for fighting a long battle with Paytm. At one hand, Paytm has expanded its consumer base by acquiring customers through cashbacks and launching a loyalty programme,  on the other hand, BookMyShow stretched its wing into the live events and non-movie ticketing, which includes concerts, stand-up comedy shows, and sports.

Notably, the non-movie ticketing vertical accounts for one-third of BookMyShow's overall revenue and it is also growing faster than the movie ticket biz.

The Mumbai-based firm now claims to sell around 18-20 million tickets a month. On the contrary, Paytm claimed to sell out 52 million movie tickets in 2017 and had targeted 100 million tickets for 2018. The current data of Paytm movie tickets couldn't be ascertained.

The investment in the non-movie ticketing business also reflected in the company's FY18 report when its losses increased by 16.5% to Rs 162 crore. However, it reported a 30% increase in operational revenues at Rs 391 crore in the fiscal.