Online travel search engine Ixigo has acquired all the intellectual property of Desi Backpacking Travelers, the company that runs IndianBackpacker, for an undisclosed amount. As a part of the deal, Akshay Chhugani founder and CEO of the Indian Backpacker, will join Ixigo as head of its Traveller Communities. In his new role, Chhugani will be responsible for building and maintaining curated communities of travelers across various interest areas. IndianBackpacker currently offers listings of various destinations across India, that contain information about how to get there, where to sleep, best times to be there and things to do etc. The website also features articles on backpacking, exploration, travelogues etc. and user forums to carry out travel discussions. Ixigo, which searches, aggregates and compares travel content of flights, hotels, trains, buses and packages, seems to have added a ‘booking’ section to the IndianBackpacker. Clicking on this essentially redirects a user to Ixigo’s flight booking section. Other than this, the only other change to IndianBackpacker seems to be its logo that now reads ‘an ixigo company’. Founded by Rajnish Kumar and Aloke Bajpai in 2007, Ixigo claims to have over 5 million users every month with over 4 million downloads across apps. Its investors are SAIF Partners and MakeMyTrip.com and claims to have partners in Expedia, Go Air, British Airways, Jet Airways, Qantas, TravelYaari, IRCTC and Oberoi Hotels among others. Micromax investment: In June, Micromax made an undisclosed investment in Ixigo. Following the investment, the two companies were to work towards building on-demand and one-click…
