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Travel and hospitality Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company RateGain opened for subscription to raise Rs 1,336 crore from its Initial Public Offering (IPO) today. The price band has been fixed at Rs 405 to Rs 425 per share.Ahead of the opening for public subscription, the company announced raising Rs 598.83 crore from 34 marquee investors.

Founded in 2004 by Bhanu Chopra, RateGain provides hotels a SaaS platform for revenue management, reputation management and online distribution. The platform also works with airlines, Online Travel Agents (OTAs), meta-search companies, vacation rental and package providers, car rental companies, and others.

According to a filing with the exchanges, the company will allot 1,40,90,136 equity shares to the 34 anchor investors. These investors include Singapore sovereign fund GIC, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, SBI Life Insurance, Nomura, Nippon Mutual Fund, Pinebridge, Axis Mutual Fund, Birla Mutual Fund and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, to name a few. 

The IPO comprises a fresh issuance of shares up to 375 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 2,26,05,530 equity shares by promoters and investor, Wagner Limited, an associate of private equity firm, TA Associates.

The shares for retail individual investors at 31, 31,141 shares were subscribed 0.65 times at 10.30 am on Tuesday. The trading will conclude on December 9.

Capital raised

According to filings, RateGain will utilise the proceeds from fresh issue to repay debt availed by its UK subsidiary from Silicon Valley Bank and for the payment of deferred consideration for the acquisition of Dallas-based hotel distribution technology company, DHISCO. 

The company will also use some part of the capital for strategic investment and for inorganic growth, technology investment in developing Artificial Intelligence capabilities and to acquire capital equipment for Data Centre. 

Noida-headquartered RateGain will be the first SaaS player to list on the Indian public markets.

Due to the impact of Covid on travel and hospitality sectors, the company reported revenues of Rs 264.1 crore for FY 2020-21 with a loss of Rs 28.6 crore, compared to revenue of Rs 457.6 crore for FY 2019-20 with a loss of Rs 20.1 crore. The company is yet to recover to pre-Covid levels.