When aloke bajpai, Co-founder and Group CEO of online travel aggregator platform ixigo, was around 10 years old, his grandfather gave him some British era coins. The young boy was fascinated and that started his love affair with coin collecting.
Over the years, Bajpai has collected coins from the Mughal empire and also the Maratha period. “Some of these coins I found in a family chest. Some others were exchanged with other coin collectors,” says the 43-year-old. He also has old copper mohars that are undated.
Bajpai enjoys collecting coins that were released to mark special occasions such as 50 years of Indian independence or the Commonwealth Games. “These days the commemorative coins have become more rare. So if I get my hands on one, I keep it.”
The ixigo Co-founder adds he also has coins from the British era. “I have coins released during the reign of Queen Victoria, King George V and King George VI. I also have bank notes from the time of George VI,” says Bajpai, admitting that the first set of currency notes issued post-independence are some of his favourites as his father was born in 1947.
Of course, his collection is not restricted to only historical coins and currency. “I also have currency from various countries. It’s been collected over the years as either I or the family travelled. I even asked relatives to bring back some currency from their travels abroad,” smiles Bajpai who has nearly 700 coins.
Over the past few years, as ixigo has grown, he hasn’t been able to devote as much time to coin collecting. Today his biggest passion is technology. “I love discovering and interacting with anything new. I have been playing a lot with all the new AI tools. But things are moving so fast. One day in the AI world is like many years in technology,” says Bajpai.
ixigo, launched 16 years ago, posted a revenue of Rs 380 crore in FY22. Bajpai expects to cross Rs 500 crore in revenue in FY23. “In the next one year we will continue to have demand higher than supply. We will tap into that with growth. We also have new verticals in the pipeline,” he says. ixigo recently launched its EV bus service between Bengaluru and Tirupati. “We have pan-India expansion plans. We want to have 1,000-plus buses by 2026-end.”
Bajpai believes EV is the future of ground travel. He says while India is on track for the rail network to be completely electrified in the next three years, it has a long way to go in terms of buses. “Governments have to work on making intra-city travel by EV buses.”
So what’s the future for ixigo? “We are relevant for the transportation bit already but can we be relevant for more? That’s what we need to answer,” says Bajpai.
@smitabw