Tech company to empower growth of travel agencies in Middle East

A leading travel distribution platform in the global travel and tourism industry, TBO Tek Limited, completed the public listing of its equity shares in India via the National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and the BSE Limited (BSE).The company raised approximately $186 million (Rs15.5 billion) from this Initial Public Offer.

The issue received an overwhelming response across all categories of investors, being oversubscribed 86.70 times overall. The Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB) portion was subscribed 125.51 times, while the Non-Institutional Investors (NII) portion received a subscription of 50.60 times. The Retail Individual Investors portion received 25.74 times, while the portion reserved for employees received 17.82 times subscription.

The company was listed on May 15, 2024 on the aforementioned Indian stock exchanges with a premium of 50% plus over the issue price.

Gaurav Bhatnagar, Co-Founder and Joint MD, TBO Tek Limited said, “Ankush Nijhawan (Co-Founder, Joint MD, TBO Tek) and myself are delighted to announce the successful listing of our company on the stock exchanges. TBO’s listing on the Indian stock exchanges marks a significant milestone in our company’s journey. This accomplishment paves the way for new opportunities, enabling us to drive innovation, expand our reach, and enhance value for our shareholders and customers. We are poised for a future of sustained growth and success."

In the Middle East, TBO is known for its pathbreaking B2A strategy — an acronym for Business to Travel Agents — in the tourism industry. B2A is a first-of-its-kind strategy in the region aimed at empowering agents to maximise earnings by meaningfully catering to travelers seeking customized, hassle-free, and convenience-oriented tourism services.

Sameh Fouad, VP Sales, Middle East, TBO Tek Limited suggested that the investments would be used to continue fueling their innovative endeavors in the region. “We at TBO are very excited about this development,” Fouad said. “The investments will be used to further enhance our technology and services as well as expand into new markets in the region."

The TBO platform has a significant presence in the Middle East and connects over 159,000 buyers across more than 100 countries with over a million suppliers. Their global impact was exemplified by the anchors attracted before the IPO, which included the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and institutional investors from countries like Norway, Japan and India.

At its core, TBO simplifies the business of travel for suppliers such as hotels, airlines, car rentals, transfers, cruises, insurance, rail, and others, and retail buyers such as travel agencies and independent travel advisors. It also caters to enterprise buyers that include tour operators, travel management companies, online travel companies, super-apps, and loyalty apps. TBO's two-sided technology platform enables suppliers and buyers to transact seamlessly with each other. For buyers, the platform is an integrated, multi-currency, and multi-lingual one-stop solution that helps them discover and book travel for destinations worldwide, across various travel segments such as leisure, corporate, and religious travel.

About TBO

TBO.COM is one of the leading global travel distribution platform that aims to simplify the buying and selling travel needs of travel partners across the world. It relies on proprietary technology that aims to simplify the demands of the complex world of global travel by seamlessly connecting the fragmented base of travel buyers and travel suppliers at scale.

TBO’s approach has always been technology-first and it continues to invest in new innovations and new offerings to make travel easy and simple. TBO’s APIs are serving large travel ecosystems across the world. The modular architecture of the platform enables new travel products while expanding across new geographies. Its proprietary technology platform relies heavily on AI/ML to offer unique listings and travel products, meeting specific requirements put forth by customers, thus increasing conversions.

The TBO journey began in 2006 with a simple goal – to address the evolving needs of travel buyers and suppliers, and what started off as a single product air ticketing company, has today become one of the leading global travel distribution platform (Source: report titled “Travel and Tourism Industry Report” issued by PGA Labs dated December 21, 2021) across the America, UK & Europe, Africa, Middle East, India, and Asia Pacific. TBO’s product range includes air, hotels, rail, holiday packages, car rentals, transfers, sightseeing, cruise, and cargo.