History redBus – India’s number 1 bus ticketing platform, was founded in 2005 and is a part of ibiboGroup. Redbus take pride in providing bus ticket fare with zero booking charges. You can now choose from 1500+ bus operators and 80,000 routes in India.
Like all innovations, redBus too has a very interesting story.
All the founders used to work in Bangalore at the time (sometime in 2005) - all with top IT MNCs - IBM, Texas Instruments and Honeywell. They were friends from BITS Pilani, one of India's finest engineering colleges.
During Diwali that year, one of them wanted to spend the festival in his home town. Since he didn't know his schedule till the end, taking a bus was the only choice.
He ran around town hunting for a ticket, but they were all sold out minutes before he reached the travel agents. Bangalore traffic is notorious and can grip you at the wrong time. That's exactly what happened that day.
That's when he thought of the possibility of providing consumers the convenience of booking a bus ticket over the internet. The objective was two-fold - to ensure that they don't have to leave the confines of their comfort to book a ticket, and to help them get a ticket when they need it the most.
The idea was compelling. And why not? The internet was being voted as a medium people couldn't do without. PC and net penetration was increasing not only in urban areas, but also in rural India with innovative concepts like Shakti and e-Choupal. Also, people were getting used to booking tickets for travel using IRCTC and private airline websites. So, why not buses?
However, the most compelling reason was that no body in India had done this!
So, with these thoughts running through his mind, he bounced initial thoughts off his friends from college. They were excited about the concept too.
However, they didn't want to take the plunge without understanding the feasibility of such an undertaking. They met with various people - bus operators, consumers