Adani Group Acquires IIT Roorkee Alumni's Online Train Booking Platform Trainman

Adani Digital Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited (AEL), has agreed to buy Trainman, an online train booking and information platform, for an undisclosed amount.

In a regulatory filing, AEL informed that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Adani Digital Labs Private Limited, has signed a share purchase agreement in relation to its proposed acquisition of 100 per cent stake in Stark Enterprises Private Limited (SEPL), also known as Trainman, an online train booking and information platform.

Under this agreement, Adani Digital Labs Private Limited will acquire 100% of online train booking startup Trainman. Adani Digital Lab signed the deal with Trainman's founders and the shareholders. However, the company has not informed on any of the financial terms of this agreement.

Following this acquisition, Trainman will be a part of Adani Group's subsidiary company — Adani Digital Lab.

Founded in 2016, by Vineet Chirania and Karan Kumar — both IIT Roorkee graduates, Trainman is an IRCTC authorized online train ticket booking platform, operated by Gurgram based company Stark Enterprise. Apart from booking train tickets through this platform, one can get information like PNR status, coach position, live status of train and seat availability.

The startup had raised a total of $744,000 in funding from venture capital investors  including GoodWater Capital, Ivy Growth Associates, and angel investors like Vijay Aggarwal, Former CTO of BharatPe, Nitin Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of Mall 91 and Vishal Kanodia, Director of Kanodia Cement Ltd, among others.

To recall, Adani Group had earlier acquired 50% equity stake in agricultural drone start up General Aeronautics, a Bangalore based start-up specializes in developing robotic Drones. Adani acquired the drone startup through its subsidiary — Adani Defence & Aerospace, in late May of last year. 

Trainman Integrates Virtual Reality 360-Degree Tour Feature on its Portal/ App

Trainman, the highest rated PNR status and train information app for Indian Railways travelers, by assisting them with extensive train related information and intelligence, has introduced an all new way of experiencing tourist destinations through Virtual Reality 360 Degree Tour section. The new add-on feature is available on Trainman’s android application and now provides a real-time experience to the users.

With the Virtual Reality 360 Degree Tour feature, users can now get a closer and detailed overview of their favorite travel destination. Powered byOutsiteVR, the new feature allows the user to travel to more than 30 national and international locations, sitting right in the comfort of their homes. In addition to this feature, one doesn’t even require a VR headset, hence making it an extremely easy-to-use application. The feature enables the users with better research options to not only just look at pictures, but also engage using audio guide thereby immersing them into an experiential viewing experience

Commenting on the launch of the Virtual Reality 360 Degree Tour feature, Mr. Vineet Chirania – DIrector & CEO, Trainman said, “We have been striving to give the best-in-class experience to our users. Now that we have launched our VR Tour section, we are affirmative that it will enable users of the app to plan their travel with accordance and apt information. We have got some really positive responses for this feature. We plan to add more destinations, both national and international, so that our customer base could have an elaborative and immersive experience just by one click from their couch."

[caption id="attachment_130500" align="alignleft" width="1280"] Vineet[/caption]

Launched in 2014, Trainman is an online platform which provides a simple and user-friendly interface to the complex Indian Railways rules and systems on the site and mobile applications across Android, iOS and Windows devices. With over 45 Lakh downloads, the website and app currently has over 5 Lakh daily visits.

The uncertainty of confirmation for waitlisted tickets coupled with the complex rules and regulations of Indian Railways paved way for the launch of Trainman, a smart and simple system that not only predicts the confirmation probability of waitlisted tickets but is one stop-shop for all train related queries. Available in 7 regional languages, Trainman’s core strength lies in its waiting ticket prediction functionality with over 92% accuracy. Apart from PNR status prediction, the constantly evolving platform also provides features like Automatic Notification on Change in PNR Status, Four month Seat Availability Calendar, Train Schedule and Running
Status which works even without internet, Live Station Status and Platform Number and Coach Position among others. One year back Trainman also started train ticket booking on their app.

Trainman is IRCTC official partner for train ticket booking. In addition, Trainman provides offline train tracking services to the travelers to keep up with the scheduled stations and time during their travel and over low connectivity.

Trainman Partners With Ola, Boosts Mobility, Access to Indian Railway Travelers

Trainman, the online platform that caters to Indian Railway travelers by assisting them with extensive train related information and intelligence, has partnered with Ola, India’s most popular mobile app for transportation. The tie-up enables Trainman consumers to book Ola rides while travelling to and from railway stations or anywhere in the city. The service will be made available to users of the Trainman android app across India where Ola is currently operational.

With this integration, Trainman users across cities will now be able to book an Ola cab across categories such as Micro, Mini, Prime and Lux directly from the Trainman app. A special Ola icon has been integrated on the home menu of the Trainman mobile app. Users can click on the icon and request for the nearest available Ola cab. Other than seeing the nearest available cabs, they will also get the details of estimated fare and the expected time of Arrival (ETA) for the cab. Real-time tracking will also be available for users booking an Ola cab through the Trainman app.

Talking about the development, Anuj Sahai, Vice President – Alliances at Ola said, “At Ola, we are focused on solving the diverse transportation needs of users across the country, by offering them the widest range of mobility use cases to choose from. We are looking at a number of solutions to provide a wholesome mobility experience to our customers. Our integration with Trainman will allow users to book their rides from and to railway stations in their cities. We have also partnered with local railway stations in large cities like Bangalore, where customers have the option to board their cab, from dedicated Ola Zones at the stations. We are committed to our mission of building mobility for a billion Indians by additionally leveraging such unique integrations.”

Speaking of the association, Vineet Chirania, Director and CEO – Trainman said, “We are happy to partner with Ola, India’s leading aggregator for transportation in India. With virtue of this tie up, we not only aim to provide our existing customers easy mobility and access but also look forward to expanding our user base by reaching out to all potential users of both Ola and Trainman mobile app(s). We believe this integration is a win-win situation for both Ola and Trainman as it will lead to organic growth in terms of reach and expansion across categories.”

A one stop shop for all information related to Indian Railways, Trainman enables consumers to check PNR status, seat availability, train schedules, all at one go. Available in 7 Indian languages apart from English, namely, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali Trainman has close to 6 lakh app downloads and receives over 2.5 lakh visits a day across its site and app.

Image : Vineet Chirania, Director and CEO – Trainman