upGrad and BookMyShow partner to build a cohesive LifeLong Learning ecosystem for India’s workforce

The exclusive strategic partnership will enable the large universe of BookMyShow users to access upGrad's best-in-class upskilling and career advancement online programs 

After catering to the educational and entertainment needs of millions of Indians over the years, upGrad, India's largest online higher education company and BookMyShow, the leading entertainment platform in the country today announced a strategic partnership, enabling users to opt for their preferred upskilling, career advancement courses and choice of entertainment - all at a single destination. 

upGrad is the higher edtech leader with a plethora of online programs in partnership with top-notch national and international universities across Management, Data, Tech, and Law. The programs are well structured suiting the industry requirements and demands and is available for professional with a brief to extensive work experience and to the first-time job seekers. With a world-class learning platform available at their disposal, learners can easily shortlist programs based on their competencies and career prospects that shall help them achieve meaningful career outcomes.


Over the last 5 months, virtual workshops and masterclasses on educative, upskilling content have been hugely successful on BookMyShow with the formats gaining ground to become among the top 3 paid categories on the platform. This has enabled a large adoption of upskilling and educative workshops across a wide audience demographic of millions of users on BookMyShow.

Bringing two of fastest-growing sectors of entertainment and education together, this unique collaboration aims to build and offer quality education, career-oriented and upskilling formats to millennials and young working professionals across metros along with tier 2 cities and beyond, where BookMyShow has a strong consumer connect across its plethora of entertainment offerings. Online programs offered by the edtech major will now be available on the BookMyShow platform.

Talking about the partnership, Arjun Mohan, CEO – India, upGrad said, "With this one-of-a-kind arrangement with BookMyShow, we will now be enabling millions of interested individuals with quality higher education options at the ease of their fingertips. We operate in times when optimism for online education is growing at a rapid speed, and such an alliance will only accelerate it further."

Highlighting the importance of the category and its uptake, Albert Almeida, COO – Live Entertainment, BookMyShow said, "With millions locked indoors through this pandemic, adoption of virtual upskilling workshops and masterclasses have seen a huge surge on BookMyShow. This specific category that enables individuals hone their professional skills and helps them with career advancement has risen to become one of the top 3 paid categories on the platform. With geographical constraints and physical learning making way for virtual education, our partnership with upGrad will enable millions of BookMyShow users get access to quality learning and skilling."

About upGrad

upGrad is India's largest online higher education company. Founded in early 2015, upGrad has impacted almost 1 million individuals globally, within a short span of 5 years. 

upGrad provides online programs in the areas of Data Science, Technology, Management and Law to college students, working professionals and enterprises. These programs are designed and delivered in collaboration with top-notch universities like IIT Madras, IIIT Bangalore, MICA, BIMTECH, NMIMS Global Access, Jindal Global Law School, Duke CE, Deakin University, Liverpool John Moores University and others.

With an 80% program completion rate, robust tech platform, outcome-based learning approach, industry-relevant curriculum, finest university credentials, strong mentorship, and steadfast placement support, upGrad has established its position as the leader in the Indian education system.

IIIT Bangalore and upGrad's PG Diploma in Data Science is India's first-ever PG Diploma, with over 10,000 alumni & learner-base, to be recommended and validated by the NASSCOM and is aligned to Government approved National Occupational Standards (NOS). upGrad has ranked No.1 in the #LinkedInTopStartups India 2020 list. This is the third time in a row that upGrad has been featured in the #LinkedInTopStartup list after 2018 and 2019. upGrad made it to the GSV Global EdTech 50 List 2020. upGrad has won the 'Best Communication and Teaching Platform' in the Education Innovation Awards 2020 by Entrepreneur India. upGrad has been awarded the title of 'Best Tech for Education' by IAMAI in 2019. upGrad received the 'Best Education Brands' award by Economic Times in 2018, and the Most Innovative Companies in India' by Fast Company in 2017. 

Link: www.upgrad.com

About BookMyShow

Launched in 2007, BookMyShow, owned and operated by Big Tree Entertainment Pvt Ltd, is India's leading entertainment destination and the one-stop shop for every out-of-home entertainment need. The firm is present in over 650 towns and Launched in 2007, BookMyShow, owned and operated by Big Tree Entertainment Pvt Ltd (founded in 1999), is India's leading entertainment destination and the one-stop shop for every out-of-home entertainment need. The firm is present in over 650 towns and cities in India and works with partners across the industry to provide unmatched entertainment experiences to millions of customers. Over the years, the company has evolved from a purely online ticketing platform for movies across 6,000 screens, to end-to-end management of live entertainment events including music concerts, live performances, theatricals, sports and more, all accomplished at par with global standards. Some of the key properties that BookMyShow has brought to its markets over the past few years include U2's The Joshua Tree Tour, NBA's debut games in India, Disney's Aladdin, Cirque du Soleil BAZZAR as also international artists such as Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber to name a few.

BookMyShow has also built India's largest organic reviews and ratings engine for movies and has driven technology innovations, such as the m-ticket and Movie Mode, impacting tens of millions of users and the industry at large. With continued support from investors including TPG Growth, Stripes Group, SAIF Partners, Accel and Network18, BookMyShow is invested in providing the best user experience, whether on-ground or online. Demonstrating category leadership, BookMyShow has grown beyond India with operations in Dubai, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Singapore amongst others. The Mumbai-headquartered company counts Ticket Green, Eventifier, Masti Tickets, Townscript and Burrp amongst its key investments in the sector. BookMyShow is also committed to society at large, by way of its charity initiative BookASmile, which provides entertainment experiences to the underprivileged. For more information, please visit www.bookmyshow.com

For further details, please contact:

Satasha Praharaj | satasha.praharaj@adfactorspr.com | +91-9124004777

BookMyShow Lays Off, Furloughs 270 Employees

Online ticket booking platform BookMyShow has laid off or furloughed 270 employees as it expects its revenue to be "greatly reduced" in the coming months, hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.

Several tech-led businesses including Ola, Uber, Zomato and Swiggy have laid off hundreds of employees in the past few weeks as they struggle against reduced earnings and uncertain business environment.

"...we have had to resort to the task of reducing our costs to align them with what we believe will be greatly reduced revenues in the months to come...Out of 1,450 employees at BookMyShow in India and globally, about 270 employees across various functions and teams, will be impacted through this exercise," BookMyShow chief executive Ashish Hemrajani said in an email to employees.

This includes those who will be put on furloughs, along with those who we will have to part ways with, at least, as of now, he added.

He said the company has tried to do it best to offer financial support, continued health insurance cover and outplacement support for those impacted by the downsizing exercise.

Hemrajani said the teams that are staying back have voluntarily taken salary cuts ranging from 10 per cent to 50 per cent at the leadership level, given up their bonuses and all salary raises.

The company has cut all other expenses and renegotiated with vendors, partners and landlords and after exhausting all other cost-saving measures, it took the decision as a "last resort", he said, adding that the layoffs are "not a reflection" of the individual's performance or ability.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, multiplexes, theatres and stadiums were closed and people stayed indoors, which impacted these businesses as well as those in ancillary services. PTI SR

BookMyShow Bets on Partnerships for Further Growth in Sporting Events biz

Online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow (BMS) said it has seen strong growth in its sporting events category in the last few quarters and it is looking at building more strategic partnerships to further strengthen its position in the segment.

BMS, which has listed over 3,500 sporting events on its platform over the last three years, said it has already sold tickets worth about Rs 350 crore this year.

"While cricket is one of the most popular sports in India, the landscape across sports in general has seen a remarkable growth across categories...BMS' sports vertical has grown tremendously, leading to increased ticket sales and revenues," BookMyShow COO (Live Entertainment) Albert Almeida told PTI.

He added that BMS expects the rate of growth of this business to increase by three times in two years. Almeida said the company sold tickets worth Rs 1,000 crore from 2016-2018 in the sporting vertical.

"In 2019 so far, we have listed over 1800 sporting events, with tickets worth Rs 350 crore already being sold on the platform. In FY19, BMS' international sport offerings grew 3X in one year... As of FY18, revenue from domestic sport offerings formed 90 per cent of BMS' sporting revenues with the remaining from international sport offerings," he explained.

Almeida said the company has partnered with key strategic players internationally and domestically to transform the live entertainment space in India, and "sports is a critical pillar for us".

"To build this pillar, we have a dedicated team that helps partners with valuable consumer insight, sharp marketing, strong revenues from ticket sales and top quality production and consumer experience on-ground," he said.

He added that the company has partnered with leading sporting leagues, both national and international to grow their franchises and communities. TPG Growth-backed BMS had partnered with Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2010, Indian Super League (ISL) in 2013, Pro-Kabaddi league in 2014, and most recently with American sports league National Basketball Association (NBA) to promote and market the event in the country.

The pre-season game will be played between the Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings in Mumbai on October 5, 2019.

"NBA is one such strategic partnership that we have entered into. NBA decided that it was an opportune time for them to build India as a market, and we partnered with them to build a stage for the sport in India," he said.

Bigtree Entertainment - which operates BMS - had raised USD 100 million (about Rs 685 crore) in a funding round last year, led by TPG Growth. In July 2016, it had raised over Rs 550 crore, led by US-based Stripes Group. PTI SR

BookMyShow To Raise $60 Mn Via TPG Growth: Report

Mumbai based online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow.com is in advanced talks to raise around $50-60 million (approximately Rs320-380 crore) from private equity firm TPG Growth, reported Live Mint citing two people aware of the development.

TPG Growth, which is the middle market and growth equity platform of the US-based alternative asset firm TPG, is looking to pick up a minority stake of about 10% in Bookmyshow, said the report.

If the deal goes through, it will be the fourth round of fund-raising (Series-D) for BookMyShow and TPG are likely to value BookMyShow at around $750 million, which is quite near to becoming an another unicorn startup from India.

Bookmyshow last raised ₹550 crore in a round led by Stripes Venture, in July 2016, and the funding was biggest for any internet startup in that year.

Prior to that, the company had raised an amount of Rs. 150 crore from Network18 Media, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners. As of date, the total capital invested in the company now adds up to a whopping figure of Rs. 800 crore ($124.5 million).

Founded in 1999 by Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande, BookMyShow's core business remains movie ticketing however the company, in recent years, has been diversifying its business to add categories such as sporting events, music events and plays.

Additionally, if this funding deal materialize then this will help Bookmyshow to strengthen its leadership position, which has been under pressure due to entry of players such as Alibaba-backed Paytm in the movie ticketing space.

Moreover, since its inception the company has also acquired six other companies including Burrp, MastTicket, Infusion and Eventifier, among others.

BookMyShow To Raise $60 Mn Via TPG Growth: Report

Mumbai based online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow.com is in advanced talks to raise around $50-60 million (approximately Rs320-380 crore) from private equity firm TPG Growth, reported Live Mint citing two people aware of the development.

TPG Growth, which is the middle market and growth equity platform of the US-based alternative asset firm TPG, is looking to pick up a minority stake of about 10% in Bookmyshow, said the report.

If the deal goes through, it will be the fourth round of fund-raising (Series-D) for BookMyShow and TPG are likely to value BookMyShow at around $750 million, which is quite near to becoming an another unicorn startup from India.

Bookmyshow last raised ₹550 crore in a round led by Stripes Venture, in July 2016, and the funding was biggest for any internet startup in that year.

Prior to that, the company had raised an amount of Rs. 150 crore from Network18 Media, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners. As of date, the total capital invested in the company now adds up to a whopping figure of Rs. 800 crore ($124.5 million).

Founded in 1999 by Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande, BookMyShow's core business remains movie ticketing however the company, in recent years, has been diversifying its business to add categories such as sporting events, music events and plays.

Additionally, if this funding deal materialize then this will help Bookmyshow to strengthen its leadership position, which has been under pressure due to entry of players such as Alibaba-backed Paytm in the movie ticketing space.

Moreover, since its inception the company has also acquired six other companies including Burrp, MastTicket, Infusion and Eventifier, among others.

Flipkart In Talks To Buy Minority Stake In BookMyShow

Two Indian startup giants are gearing to join forces in order to give third one a fierce fight. The two startups in question are India’s ecommerce giant, Flipkart and country’s famous movies and events ticketing platform, BookMyShow.

According to a media report, Flipkart is currently contemplating forging a strategic partnership by picking up a minority stake in BookMyShow, the name which over the years has become synonymous with entertainment in India. The report claims that with this investment, the company, which is considered as one of the most successful startups to ever come out of India, aims to build out its services and transaction offering against Paytm, a mobile wallet and ecommerce company.

Quoting two people aware of the development, the report claims that the talks, which are still in the preliminary stage might witness the numero uno Indian ecommerce company picking up a significant minority stake in BookMyShow.

Industry experts believe that building a strategic partnership with market leader BookMyShow will end up giving the Bengaluru-based ecommerce giant, which is currently also working on building out its own payments platform called PhonePe, a major stake in India’s ticketing market and a more frequent use case for its services to its over 100 million customers.

A Flipkart group company, PhonePe is a Fin-Tech company headquartered in Bangalore founded in December 2015, that provides online payment system based on UPI, which is a process in electronic funds transfer launched by National Payments Corporation of India.

If the Flipkart and BookMyShow deal goes through, it will be the latest amongst the country’s top three ecommerce firms moves to branch out and build integrated service verticals beyond their central offering of an ecommerce marketplace.

Paytm’s recent purchase of deals and discovery platforms Little and Nearbuy hints a journey in a similar direction. The company is reportedly also in talks to buy travel platform Via.com.

On the other hand, through Local Finds, Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Now, global ecommerce giant Amazon has been slowly but steadily building out its hyperlocal and services offerings to its customers all around the globe, including India.

If one looks carefully, one would notice that Indian ecommerce firms are aping the service vertical model that China’s ecommerce biggie Alibaba has been following for quite sometime now. The Chinese ecommerce player and its payments arm Ant Financial have invested capital in Chinese online to offline platform for services Meituan-Dianping

Flipkart has acquired a unique status in the $30 billion Indian e-commerce market. The company, which is currently in its tenth year of operation and enjoys a customer base of 100 million users has built the reputation of being an Indian e-commerce major by being customer centric and providing them with stupendous discounts and offers year after year.

In August, Flipkart raised the second portion of its Series J funding from SoftBank Group. The $2.5B investment by the Japanese telecom and internet giant was a part of its $93 billion Vision Tech Fund, which is considered as the world's biggest private equity fund.

BookMyShow is also doing quite good for itself and is focusing its attention on building original content offering on both its video and audio platform. The firm recently unveiled an audio entertainment platform called JukeBox. In a bid to reach to The company has decided to tier 2 and 3 towns of the country, the firm has decided to focus on local language content for both its video and audio platforms. This particular move can end up proving vastly beneficial for Flipkart given its repeated attempts and sayings wanting to serve deeper in the smaller towns of the country.

BookMyShow Acquires Nfusion to Boost Its Audio Entertainment Offerings

India’s largest online entertainment ticketing company BookMyShow today announced that it has acquired Nfusion for an undisclosed amount in an all cash deal. This comes at a time when BookMyShow after redefining the movies and events ticketing space, is well on its path to become the ultimate entertainment destination for users.

Nfusion was set up in Middle East in 2009 by Shoaib G.M. Khan, Sivagurunathan S and Prabhakar Reddy as a HD video-on-demand platform which allowed its users to stream videos online. While Shoaib (alumnus of BITS Pilani), designed, built and managed the end to end media platform, Prabhakar (alumnus of BITS Pilani and Harvard Business School) led the Product, Monetization and Business Development at Nfusion. Sivagurnathan (alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIM Bangalore) designed and managed the information security and infrastructure for Nfusion's media portal.

Nfusion’s scalable tech solutions, especially CMS (content management system), will be key to the success of BookMyShow’s foray into audio entertainment. The acquisition not just provides BookMyShow a robust tech platform but also an experienced team which will provide a fillip to BookMyShow’s audio entertainment offerings. While the Nfusion team will be headed by Shoaib, Sivagurunathan will lead the Architecture and Devops teams at BookMyShow.

Parikshit Dar, Director, BookMyShow said, “We have already established our video content vertical and are now excited to foray into audio entertainment through our offering ‘Jukebox’. The Nfusion team has brought with them immense experience, innovation capability as well as expertise in building and managing scalable tech solutions. With them and our music label partners, we look forward to offering the widest variety and possibly the best curated audio content to our users.”

Through Jukebox, BookMyShow already offers free music downloads to its users. Anytime users book movie tickets on BookMyShow, they are rewarded with music credits which can be redeemed to download their favorite songs on the Android or iOS app. Currently, BookMyShow offers over 1.5 million songs to choose from and has already been witnessing 300% growth m-o-m in the number of downloads.

To lead this vertical, BookMyShow has appointed Aditya Kuber as Associate Vice President – Audio Entertainment. He will report to BookMyShow CEO and Founder, Ashish Hemrajani. Aditya’s role will be instrumental in driving partnerships with music labels and distributors, creating exclusive audio content for BookMyShow users, and product marketing. He brings with him over 17 years of experience and has a demonstrated history of working across media, publishing, digital, and advertising.

BookMyShow had earlier acquired Chennai based online ticketing player TicketGreen in 2013. The company then acquired a majority stake in Bengaluru-based social media analytics start-up Eventifier in 2015 and Chennai based fan relationship management (FRM) solutions provider, Fantain Sports Pvt. Ltd. in 2016. In 2017, BookMyShow acquired Hyderabad based online movie ticketing platform MastiTickets, invested in Pune based DIY platform Townscript and also acquired Mumbai based local food and restaurant recommendation engine Burrp.

BookMyShow Acquires Food & Restaurant Discovery Platform Burrp

BookMyShow today announced that it has fully acquired Mumbai based local food and restaurant recommendation engine Burrp in an all cash deal from Network18. This Network18 divestment has been made to Foodfesta Wellcare Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of BigTree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. The acquisition includes transfer of Burrp’s key assets to BookMyShow, including employees and existing restaurant partnerships.

Burrp was founded by Deep Ubhi and Anand Jain in 2006 and remains to be India’s oldest food tech company which helps people discover eating joints around them. It currently lists over 60,000 restaurants across 14 cities. In addition to listings, Burrp recently ventured into offer redemption and couponing, along with ticketing of F&B events.

Mansi Vora, Head- Mergers & Acquisitions, BookMyShow said, “Movie watching in India has evolved tremendously over the last few years. At BookMyShow, we are not just delighted to have been a key part of this journey, but we are determined to continue to lead the way by offering an unparalleled experience to our users. Movie going in India is a social activity and food is an integral part of it. This is where Burrp fits in for us. We are excited to have Burrp on board and look forward to benefitting from their experience, technology and partnerships to offer a superior and comprehensive offering to our users.”

BookMyShow has been an early believer in the potential of food related offerings to enhance movie watching experience. It already offers its users the option to pre-book their F&B at cinemas while booking their movie tickets on BookMyShow. This way, users are able to choose from exclusively curated offers and combos and save themselves the hassle while watching a movie. This vertical experienced a 6x growth between 2015-16 and 2016-17 on BookMyShow.

BookMyShow also offers MyCoupons- exclusive and free discount coupons that can be availed at popular restaurants & cafes in the vicinity of the cinema a user is visiting. With a validity of two days (including the day of the movie show), a user can pick up to two Free MyCoupons right after making the seat selection on BookMyShow and redeem at their preferred restaurant or café, by simply showing the received e-mail or SMS to avail fabulous discounts. This offering is now present in over 80 cities across India. BookMyShow has partnered with more than 2100 food retail brands right from local city food joints to popular national chains including McDonald’s (Hardcastle Restaurants), Chaayos, Mainland China, Dunkin Donuts, Barbeque Nation, Subway, Bikanerwala etc. to cover a combined 6400+ outlets around 1100+ cinemas across these cities.

Niki.ai, BookMyShow Partnership Provides Smart Movie Booking Experience To Its Users

AI startup, Niki.ai has partnered with online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow. Fulfilled by BookMyShow, Niki users can now search and book movie tickets across the country at their preferred cinema venues, while simply chatting with Niki. The Artificial Intelligence powered chat experience provides easy discovery and a host of options to the customers.

Commenting on the development, Parikshit Dar, Director, BookMyShow said, “BookMyShow has always been keen to partner on initiatives that promote new technologies and we are now excited to take lead in exploring the potential of chatbots in movie ticket bookings in India. With 75% of transactions coming through mobile on BookMyShow, we understand the importance of a ‘mobile first strategy’ and believe that our association with Niki.ai is a step forward in this direction.”

How does it work?
Want to watch a movie today with your office colleagues? But you can only watch after work and for the convenience of everyone, you want to watch it in a theatre near your office. For this you just need to type ‘Show English action movies near MG Road after 8 PM for today’ on Niki app and by applying multiple filters, such as movie name, genre, show timings, theatre location and more, easily in a single text message to Niki to can get your movie ticket booked.

Niki, while using emerging technologies of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, makes the whole movie booking process as simple as talking to a human booking agent since chatbot ‘Niki’ has the capability to understand complex queries.

It understands that users have multiple preferences while booking movie tickets and makes it extremely simple to work around these by presenting the users with options and recommendations that best suits their needs.

“With our vision to provide consumers with the most natural, simple and intelligent mode of transacting online, we have leveraged our technology of artificial intelligence combined with tackling consumer problems to build a one of a kind conversational theatre discovery and ticket booking experience,” said Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, Niki.ai.

Founded in 2015, and funded by Ratan Tata and Unilazer Ventures, Niki.ai envisions to provide one shop for everything commerce. Niki is an AI bot who converses to help its users shop for products and services and makes the whole journey from discovery to transaction fast, convenient and extremely simple. The company provides a simple and easy to use chat interface to shop for products and services. To the businesses, it provides a plug and play technology that can be easily integrated everywhere including operating systems, on messaging platforms messenger, and on the brand’s applications (app and web).

With a 35% month-on-month revenue growth, the company has 50+ partners on board, with much more in the pipeline. On the customer front, the company claims to have more than 400,000 customers using Niki.

The company plans to integrate many more services on its platform. It also plans on being on a lot more platforms like iOS and messaging platforms like Slack.