In an exclusive interaction with MediaBrief, Rohit Sharma, Chief Operating Officer, AbhiBus, speaks about the product innovations reshaping India’s bus travel experience, how AI is improving reliability and customer trust, and the strategies driving the platform’s rapid growth across tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
AbhiBus is an online bus-ticketing platform aggregating inventory from over 6,200 operators, including major State Road Transport Corporations (SRTCs), across more than 6.5 lakh routes nationwide. The segment has emerged as one of ixigo’s strongest growth engines, scaling significantly since its 2021 acquisition. The business has grown from roughly INR 400–500 crore in annual GTV to over INR 2,400 crore in the last 12 months—nearly a sixfold increase—and continues to expand at a strong 40–50% year-on-year.
Speaking about the company’s journey, its COO Rohit Sharma says, “AbhiBus is almost an 18-year-old player. In the first good half of our life cycle, we were a software player, providing and empowering government RTCs as well as private operators. So we did know what the broken pieces were in this entire bus OTA (Online Travel Agency) ecosystem.”
“Typically,” he adds, “when we look at the recent success in the last three or four years, it is attributed to something that you would have done in the last three or four years. But I think there’s a long journey of innovation and learning that we have had.”
That journey, he adds, eventually led to a series of product innovations designed specifically to improve customer trust in bus travel—an area where uncertainty has historically discouraged many passengers.
“If I were to largely attribute the growth of AbhiBus in the past four years, and hopefully in the time to come, it would be to some of the product innovations that we have done,” Sharma adds.
Solving the core pain points of bus travel
Among those innovations, Sharma highlights the introduction of the Assured programme as a pivotal turning point for the platform. As per the brand, the idea for the feature emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the team took time to revisit fundamental questions about bus travel and why many consumers hesitate to choose it over flights or trains.
Sharma says, “During COVID, we literally went to the drawing board and wrote down what can typically go wrong in a bus journey. And I also remember we wrote, why would I not let my mother travel by bus.”
From this exercise, the team identified four recurring issues that frequently affect passengers—late buses, unpredictable staff behaviour, poor bus quality, and, in some cases, buses failing to arrive at all.
Sharma explains, “One is that buses are always late. Second is that customers do not like to travel by bus because of unpredictable behavior. Third was the predictability of the bus itself. And the fourth is that the bus doesn’t turn up.”
Addressing these issues required more than simply adding features—it demanded structural improvements across the ecosystem. Sharma notes that one of the first steps was introducing GPS tracking across buses listed under the Assured category.
Sharma says, “Before we launched Assured, we took that one year of COVID and made sure that every single bus that we sell on Assured should have a GPS tracker. The customer headline is: if anything goes wrong in your bus travel, you travel for free. We have a no-questions-asked, 100% instant refund policy under Assured.”
Passengers can flag issues through the app by uploading photos or raising alerts, after which the system verifies claims using technology and AI.
Sharma says, “With the use of AI and technology, we automatically detect that the claim is correct. You get your money back without friction. Cut to today, we have sold tens of lakhs of Assured tickets. We have a very high NPS, and we are 4.8-star rated on the Play Store.”
Beyond the Assured programme, AbhiBus has rolled out a suite of AI-led innovations to enhance both operator efficiency and passenger experience. Its Edge app enables operators to run smarter campaigns with AI-driven recommendations, real-time analytics, targeted route filters, and one-click execution, while integrating ad solutions and crew performance insights.
On the consumer side, features like Pink Seat improve safety by allocating adjacent seats for female travellers during night journeys, and Bus Insights offers data on operator reliability and service quality.
The platform also introduced ReadyGo for real-time operational intelligence and an industry-first roadside assistance programme for disruptions.
Winning the tier-2 and tier-3 India traveller
As the platform evolved, Sharma explains that AbhiBus’ growth has been strongly linked to travel demand from tier-2 and tier-3 cities—markets where buses often serve as the most practical mode of intercity mobility. Sharma says, “The length of highway construction in the last four years is astronomical. Every year, the Indian government is breaking its own record.”
“We were the first OTA to bring Pink Seat to the country. If you’re traveling alone, we ensure that the tickets adjacent to you are not booked by male passengers. This feature has actually been very viral. A lot of people over the years have thanked us, saying they felt comfortable and safe when they used the Pink Seat.”
Demand patterns across routes have evolved, with spiritual travel emerging as a major driver of growth. “Destinations like Tirupati and Shirdi have seen enormous growth for us almost every year,” Sharma says.
More broadly, AbhiBus data highlights strong growth across key intercity corridors. Delhi–Lucknow and Delhi–Varanasi routes are recording over 60% year-on-year growth, while Mumbai–Pune and Mumbai–Nagpur have seen an even sharper 75% uptick.
Hyderabad–Vijayawada and Hyderabad–Bengaluru have witnessed a 70% rise in advance bookings, while the Bengaluru–Chennai corridor has grown by 65%. Eastern routes such as Kolkata–Durgapur and Patna–Ranchi have also reported robust double-digit gains year-on-year.
This momentum was particularly evident during the Holi week, when AbhiBus (ixigo bus business) reported over 70% year-on-year growth in advance bookings, underlining the continued surge in intercity travel demand.
Product-led marketing over traditional advertising
Despite this growth, AbhiBus has largely stayed away from traditional mass-media advertising. Instead, the company has relied on building useful products that naturally attract travellers searching for bus tickets.
Explaining the rationale behind this, Sharma says, “Traditionally, you see ixigo group—we have been very brand-light. We have always believed in building utilities that sell for themselves.”
Rather than focusing on large-scale campaigns, the strategy has been to ensure that AbhiBus appears wherever travellers actively search for buses online. “We need to be present wherever there is a customer who’s looking for us,” Sharma adds.
During the pandemic, the company also made a bold strategic commitment. “If a bus sells online, you will find that bus on AbhiBus,” Sharma states. This focus on supply availability has helped position the platform as a comprehensive destination for bus ticket bookings.
Sharma says, “Bus ticketing means AC, non-AC, sleeper, non-sleeper, government, private. The permutations are so much that customers need hundreds of options.”
AbhiBus has also introduced transparency tools that allow passengers to evaluate bus quality before booking. “We introduced a new bus filter so customers can know the age of the bus,” Sharma adds.
In another industry-first initiative, the platform allows passengers to virtually explore buses before booking their seats. “We created an app that creates a 360 video of the bus. You can actually walk into the bus and zoom into the seat before booking.”
AI reshaping bus travel experiences
On the role that artificial intelligence will play in improving reliability and predictability across the bus ecosystem, Sharma says, “Ten days before the booking, our proprietary AI system will predict the number plate. Because the number plate is predicted, the photo and 360 assigned to that will let you walk into the bus before you even book,” Sharma adds.
“We have the last 18 years of data,” Sharma informs. “Every day, the model keeps training itself as passengers travel.”
Looking ahead, he believes AI will also enable more proactive travel insights. “In the future, it will predict that this bus was late so many times and help customers make informed decisions.”
Expanding through partnerships and platform integrations
Another area of growth for AbhiBus has been partnerships with large consumer platforms and super apps. Sharma says, “AbhiBus is becoming the default choice for most of the super apps.”
One such partnership is with PhonePe, where the bus booking service is integrated directly within the app. Sharma says, “You open PhonePe and you see a bus icon which opens AbhiBus inside the PhonePe app. We are very proud that such a global conglomerate chose AbhiBus.”
He adds that customer satisfaction metrics played an important role in the partnership. “Our NPS and features like Assured were some of the highlights that the Uber team really liked.”
Apart from PhonePe, the brand has also partnered with Uber to power intercity bus ticket bookings within the Uber app. Uber users across India can now book intercity bus tickets directly within the app, leveraging AbhiBus’s robust inventory and booking technology. Through this partnership, users gain access to AbhiBus’s extensive network of over 6 lakh routes operated by more than 6,200 bus operators nationwide.
Powered by AbhiBus’s end-to-end booking technology and deep operator integrations, Uber users can discover and compare bus options, check real-time seat availability, and select preferred seats directly within the app.
The partnership expands Uber’s mobility ecosystem beyond intra-city rides by integrating bus travel into a single app, enabling users to plan both short-distance and intercity journeys seamlessly.
Looking ahead: Solving the next customer problem
Despite the company’s growth and increasing visibility across platforms, Sharma maintains that AbhiBus will continue to focus on solving practical traveller problems rather than prioritising large-scale marketing campaigns.
He says, “If your product is great, you probably don’t have to advertise. There is one massive feature coming next week which will solve a problem that will let every family member allow their family to travel with complete peace of mind.”
Ultimately, Sharma believes the most effective marketing for AbhiBus will continue to come from its product innovations. “Just like Assured, Pink Seat, and bus insights, those features themselves become our marketing.”
