ibibo Group, part of South African media company Naspers Ltd, which operates redBus.in and Goibibo.com, has acquired a minority stake in cloud-based hotels solution provider Djubo for an undisclosed amount.

Djubo was launched in February. The company was founded by Tarun Gulati, an Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore alumnus with over six years of experience in private equity and three years in the hospitality and hotel technology, and Sankalp Goel, an Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad alumnus with over six years of experience in IT consulting and software development.

Djubo is live with over 100 listed hotels, and this investment would enable it to upscale in the next 12 months, ibibo said in a statement.

Ashish Kashyap, chief executive officer of ibibo Group, will join Djubo’s board as a member.

“Both sides will leverage significant synergies through this equity partnership to ensure more online participation of long tail hotels,” the company said.

Kashyap said the company’s aim is to participate in solving problems in the accomodation and transportation industry.

“In the accommodation space we are the largest hotels platform and similarly in the transportation space we are the number one bus ticketing ecosystem. Djubo is solving critical pain points of the hotel industry, delivering disproportionate value to the industry,” he said.

ibibo also runs YourBus (vehicle tracking application) and recently launched car sharing app ibibo Ryde. According to its website, more than three million unique users transact with ibibo platforms every month.

Sankalp Goel, co-founder of Djubo, said his company is excited to have ibibo Group on board as an investor adding Djubo is planning to cross 2,000 hotels within the next 12 months.

“A substantial portion of the investment will be put into product development to bring even more innovative functionality to Djubo and develop it into a robust, end-to-end solution for hotel sales management covering micro-functions as well,” Goel said.

Djubo offers hotels a cloud based centralized reservation system, an auto sync online booking engine, an auto-sync channel manager, a templatized website for standalone hotels and chains as well as a mobile app to manage all their reservation activities on the go.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/Companies/ZPWavLBcrssc98H5hYmpqI/ibibo-Group-acquires-minority-stake-in-hotel-technology-star.html