Industry News

BookMyShow acquires Indian events operator Townscript

Indian movie ticketing platform BookMyShow has purchased a controlling interest in events registration and ticketing startup Townscript.

BookMyShow, which last month announced the acquisition Hyderabad-based MastiTickets in an all-cash deal, has bought a 75 per cent stake in Pune-based Townscript for an undisclosed amount.

Townscript, which was founded in 2014 by Sachin Sharma and Sanchit Malik, targets registration and ticketing needs of small and medium scale events such as workshops, conferences, exhibitions, endurance events like marathons among others.

“We have been working in this area for some time and we discovered the perfect synergy match with Townscript,” said Ashish Hemrajani, chief executive and co-founder of BookMyShow. “We are eager to share our learnings as well as market and product expertise in this space, to help Townscript continue to scale.”

Townscript, which charges clients a four per cent of ticket value along with Rs10 (€0.14/$0.15/£0.12) as a fixed fee, has managed about 12,000 such events so far.

The deal will help BookMyShow raise its share of India’s events business, with movies making up 55 per cent of its current sales and sports another 35 per cent .

In 2016, BookMyShow sold over 100 million tickets and expects to double the growth in the coming year while it strongly focuses upon regional markets. It also secured a major funding boost, led by US-based growth fund Stripes Group, towards the end of 2016.

“BookMyShow are category leaders, and working with them will give us deeper penetration into the market,” Sharma said.

“We see this investment as the launch pad for a new round of innovation and fast-tracked progress. The investment will be primarily utilised towards building and improving the product offering to technology solutions that address all pain points of registration-based events right from school annual days, expos and conventions, to free-to-host charity, spirituality and fashion events.”