Rewiring the DNA of India’s Bus Ecosystem with Rohit Sharma’s AbhiBus

1) Take us back to the start: What hooked you on travel-tech? And how did that passion translate into the creation of AbhiBus?

One of the exciting parts when I joined AbhiBus was that I had just turned 30. My ex-manager used to say that your body develops different kinds of hormones when you cross a decade, and you suddenly get a little spiritual. When I heard about the problems in the bus sector, I realized this is one of the most vulnerable and uncertain modes of travel for any passenger, rich or poor, men or women, elderly or young.

A lot of things that can go wrong in transportation exist in buses. We don't have great boarding points, we have not-so-well-trained staff, and we have a very fragmented supply. Unlike trains, where supply is managed by one entity, or flights, where it is managed by professionally run entities, buses have a few thousand entities. They speak different languages, come from different backgrounds, and customer expectations vary.

So when we looked at it, we asked ourselves: Can there be a time when there is an Indigo for buses? Can there be a player who can become the Indigo of this sector? We thought yes—as an aggregator, we could give a fair chance to all suppliers to raise their bar.

What was fascinating for me at the time was hearing that India's domestic flight travelers were going to touch four lakh daily. I was living in Hyderabad, and I thought: more than four lakh people catch a bus every day from Hyderabad alone. So, the mass problem that we were going to cater to was something that was very exciting for me.

2) How are you keeping customers at the center of everything that you do from an operational standpoint?

We often discuss on our floor that if you want to solve a problem, you have to be the customer yourself. So, we travel a lot by bus, avoiding trains or flights wherever possible. When we travel, we see problems that we relate to personally—for ourselves, our sisters, our mothers, or our relatives.

We have thousands of examples where we ask, 'If I were in this situation, how would I have dealt with it?' Very recently, when I was traveling to Kanpur, the driver dropped me 200 meters before the designated point. In that kind of heat, walking 200 meters to catch an auto could be the difference between a heat stroke. As an aggregator, I took that problem home to figure out how technology could solve it. It’s not just about getting a few customers; it's about creating a benchmark for the industry that thousands of bus operators will eventually adopt.

One solution we found came from an experience about six years ago. In Hyderabad, metro pillars are identified as boarding points. A ticket might say 'Metro Pillar 500,' but nobody knows if the bus will be on the left or the right side. We went to the drawing board and realized less than 10% of bus operators had live tracking features, even though Ola and Uber were already established. As a consumer accustomed to tracking a cab on a map, not having that feature for buses felt like a pseudo-crime.

We have worked hard over the last six years to ensure close to 100% of the buses now have integrated GPS devices. The upkeep, maintenance, live feed, and testing may not yield an immediate business result. But it adds up. When we see the feedback—and the fact that we are the only 4.8-star rated bus app in the world—we know it takes thousands of heartfelt experiences and solving dozens of them to get there. It motivates the customer to tell others, 'You know what? You can travel by bus because they are now trackable.'

We often discuss how there is an 'airport look' but no 'bus look.' You celebrate airport travel, and you have memories of childhood train journeys to your Nani’s house, but not many people talk about bus journeys because they are usually full of surprises and uncertainties. If AbhiBus can make bus journeys predictable, I think that would be the biggest reward we could have in the future.

3) So, you know, you could have worked in any industry in the country. There's tech, you know, there's finance, there's e-commerce. There's so much out there. What made you stick to travel tech? And are there moments when, you know, during peak season or just times when maybe operations are down? Do you ever get nervous and what inspires you to wake up the next day and get back right into it?

The simple answer is: I love to travel. I travel a lot, and I still prefer buses. For people earning more than 50,000 or a lakh rupees a month, the first mode of transport that comes to mind is usually a flight. But as a tall person who travels frequently, I find flights aren't the most comfortable. They save time, sure, but you miss the beautiful journeys and the ghat views. That love for travel was certainly at the top of the list of things that motivated me to work for AbhiBus.

Like many of our friends and family, I used to have more bad things to say about bus travel than good—from the driver not greeting you, to finding a dirty seat or a broken curtain. The fun part is that we use all those negatives as motivation even today to fix what is broken.

We launched 'Assured' about three years ago. On paper, it looked impossible. The first line of the white paper said this is a program that lets you travel for free if anything goes wrong. It is probably the only program in the world that gives you the confidence to say, 'Don't worry, book an Assured bus from AbhiBus and nothing will go wrong.' Obviously, things can go wrong, but we take care of it. We have instant customer support and we take strict action against drivers or conductors who cross the line.

Even if it's something small—like a curtain not being clean, an AC vent not working, or a charging socket failing—we take it seriously. Others might make excuses, but for a passenger, one of these issues could mean lost dollars or a missed opportunity. So we said, if one of these things goes wrong, just use the Assured helpline on the app—you don't even have to call us—and we will give you a full refund instantaneously.

We were likely the first OTA pre-COVID to allow instant refunds. This has a cost. Expediting a credit card refund costs money—probably equivalent to the commission we would have made on the ticket. But for us, it comes down to empathy. Back in 2006, when I was earning 10,000 rupees, if I had booked a 2,000 rupee ticket and cancelled it, waiting three days for the refund would have meant missing out on daily necessities. So, in 2019, we took an oath to process every single refund within seconds, even if it costs us.

All of us at AbhiBus absolutely love traveling. And when you encounter a problem and carry it home with you, you feel compelled to fix it. It just can't leave your mind.

4) So now that you're talking about traveling so much, what was the most epic trip that you've ever taken in your life, and the one that you remember even now?

Probably the most 'epic' trip I took wasn't the most pleasant one. But again, we travel because we want to find the motivation for what needs fixing. This was from Hyderabad to Mumbai, one of the longest circuits.

One thing we learned is that if the bus enters Mumbai before 6:00 or 7:00 AM, it is a great journey. But if the bus is late, it becomes a nightmare. I had to get down at Bandra. We chose a bus because only a bus can drop you there—trains and flights don't go to Bandra, so there is an advantage. But when you hit peak morning traffic, three to four hours are just lost. The mobile network also gets squeezed; your data stops working, and you can't even make calls. That last leg adds a lot of frustration.

As an aggregator, we don't just work for the customer; we work with the associations too. We took this point to them, asking: Can't we time buses entering Mumbai—or any big city—so the customer doesn't have to suffer? That 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM crawl inside the city burns fuel, frustrates the customer, and wastes three hours of the driver's quality life—time he could have spent with his family after driving the entire night.

Corrective actions were taken. Hyderabad was one of the first cities to allow minivans within the city because heavy buses take too long to maneuver. Now, operators use vehicles like the 12-seater Force Traveller or Innovas to shuttle customers from the city center to the highway start point. This avoids significant traffic congestion.

These things might not count on a balance sheet, but we are very proud that we contributed to a solution that reduced the traffic of those 45-seater buses during peak hours. Now, big buses don't enter Hyderabad city. We are seeing the same shift in Chennai, where the major boarding point has moved from Koyambedu in the city center to Kilambakkam at the edge of the city. We take a lot of pride in having helped the authorities with that vision. There are always moments when you realize you need to change something, and that leads to improvements you never thought could happen.

5) So as a leader, you know, when you make these decisions, it affects everyone, not just you or your customers, but also your team. So what were those two or three moments in your life, in your journey, especially at Abibus, that really changed the way that you make decisions?

I can think of exactly two examples. Coincidentally, both cases involved women, and hearing their stories made us extremely emotional. One problem we were able to solve, which we are very proud of. The second is yet to be fully resolved.

The first case involved a pregnant woman traveling on a shorter route in the South. Her bus got cancelled, she was moved to an alternative bus, and was offered the last seat. If you’ve traveled by bus, you know the last row can be very bumpy. When we heard her feedback, we literally cried thinking about how we failed to help.

A passenger selects a specific seat—say, 5A—for a calculated reason: they know it’s in the middle or on the lower level where it's less bumpy. Just because a bus is merged or cancelled, she shouldn't be forced into the back seat. So, we built a tech solution to ensure that if an operator provides an alternative bus, they are motivated to assign the exact same seat.

The second incident involved a university teacher traveling to Kerala for a conference in Trivandrum. After the conference, she reached the bus station for a pre-booked 11:30 PM bus, but it never arrived. We read her tweet past midnight, and it was full of pain. She couldn't speak the local language, couldn't talk to anyone, and couldn't find an alternative.

We provided a short-term solution by immediately booking a hotel for her stay. However, the language barrier in travel is a systemic issue we want to fix. Thankfully, with the rise of AI and LLM models, we are now much closer to solving this using real-time, lightning-fast translation.

As you mentioned, these were the junctures where we realized we had to work harder. The revenue, the growth, the EBITDA, and the valuations—they are going to happen by design because we are blessed to be working in India.

We were discussing earlier that the per capita income is currently between $2,500 and $3,000. Imagine when it gets to $6,000 or $7,000; the paying capacity of the Indian Gen Zs and Millennials will increase, and they will all spend.

So, business growth is written. It is not just for AbhiBus or the travel sector specifically; I think for every industry in India, you have to actively do things wrong not to grow at lightning speed. With that motivation, business growth is certain. However, if you are not solving problems, you will grow more slowly than the industry. But if you solve specific problems on a daily and weekly basis, you stay ahead.

6) The travel industry has been on a wild ride, and platforms like AbhiBus have evolved to a point where booking a ticket feels as effortless as ordering food. But we know that creating that kind of simplicity is incredibly complex. Were there specific challenges—whether in customer behavior or technical adoption—that completely caught you off guard during that journey?

The most challenging part is that, as an aggregator, we are a bridge between the customer and the bus operator. We actually handle two customers. On one side, we have the passenger who has extreme expectations—rightly so, because they have paid for it, often paying a premium for a last-minute booking. On the other side, we have an extremely fragmented supply chain where, for them, the status quo is the 'chalta hai' (anything goes) attitude.

The hardest part is convincing the supply side to cater to the modern, expecting customer. Suppliers often think purely about the business side. They might say, 'I only got 10 seats filled out of 40. I can't afford to run this bus, so I have the right to cancel it and tell those customers to wait for the next bus in three hours.' But on the human side, being told to wait three hours unplanned is heartbreaking.

We always try to give the benefit of the doubt to the customer because I am also a customer. I expect my flight to be on time and my train to be trackable. So, we try very hard to convince the operator that it is not okay to make a customer wait. We believe we are seeing success thanks to internet penetration. Customers no longer want to walk into ISBT Kashmere Gate, Koyambedu in Chennai, or Lakdikapul in Hyderabad. They want predictability. They want a specific seat, a specific discount, and they want to see photos of the bus.

To fix this challenge, we decided to become the first OTA (Online Travel Agency) in the world to capture every single bus inside and out. We used modern tech to create an app with over 200 touchpoints that generates a 360-degree layout. Now, before boarding, a customer can see: 'Will I fit in this seat as a tall person? Is it clean enough?' The internet doesn't lie. Once it is captured, it becomes proof for the customer.

I strongly believe that suppliers who care about customer sentiment are the ones who grow the fastest. You can't offer a stained seat that hasn't been cleaned for 10 days and expect the customer to return. They might use AbhiBus again because we give them 500 other options to choose a clean seat over a dirty one, but they won't choose that operator.

We are excited that more operators are appreciating that we are bridging this gap and motivating them to raise the bar. And here is the 'Easter egg': If the customer benefits, they are willing to pay more. And if the customer pays more, everybody benefits. It’s a win-win situation.

7) AbhiBus started in 2008, a time when the internet was a very different space, and people were hesitant to even transact online. Today, our entire world fits in a smartphone. How did you navigate that massive shift in consumer trust over the last 15 years, and how has the platform evolved to keep up with that digital revolution?

That is a very interesting question. See, AbhiBus has essentially had two avatars.

The first half of our life was spent as a software company, performing the crucial task of convincing bus operators that they needed digitization. We all use BookMyShow and enjoy selecting a specific seat, but we rarely think about the software company that went to every single screen to implement that seat layout, pricing control, and checks and balances.

We were the first technology company to knock on the doors of government RTCs (Road Transport Corporations). We worked with UPSRTC back in 2007-08 and the Andhra Pradesh government to bring their long-route buses onto a software platform. If they were ever going to become an OTA, they needed to consume those APIs first. So, a good seven or eight years went into acquiring those customers from a SaaS perspective. At our peak, we had about 500 private bus operators using our technology to sell tickets on other platforms.

Just before COVID, we realized we had deep experience understanding what India wants—how they travel, pricing engines, and customer behavior—because we were capturing every touchpoint from boarding to NPS. So, around 2017-2018, we launched our own app and website. We quickly became the fastest-growing and the second-largest OTA back in the day.

That era was very different from 2008 because technology was changing at breakneck speed. Now, in the second part of our avatar—the AI revolution—the speed is even faster. We talk every day on the floor about 'idea to production.' If you take too long, you not only lose the business opportunity, but you also leave the customer hanging with an unsolved problem.

I’ll give you a simple example. When the IPL started, we were keen to partner with Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team, CSK. Incidentally, our group companies had other partnerships—ConfirmTkt works with RCB, and Ixigo has Rohit Sharma as their brand ambassador. We were excited about the South connection, so we onboarded CSK. But you can't just have a brand ambassador; everyone does that. We had to complement it with a tech solution.

Our marketing team came up with an idea: every time someone hits a boundary, we should reward our customers. We launched a campaign called 'Super 40' and 'Super 60.' If someone hit a six, you got a 60% discount on your bus journey for a very brief period. We wanted to test if our customers would really get into the T20 mode—and it worked like a charm. We saw record-breaking hourly bookings every time a six was hit.

The reason I share this is to highlight that in this current AI-driven environment, the customer expects everything now. If you are a traditional brand operating like it's 2008—coming up with an idea today and launching it six months later—you don't have a chance. This complex campaign, involving live score tracking and real-time discounting, was conceptualized and went live in less than 24 hours. That is the speed required to grow today.

8) That campaign sounds brilliant, but from an engineering standpoint, it sounds like a potential nightmare. You have massive spikes in traffic the second a six is hit, and everything needs to happen in real-time. How did you architect the backend to handle that sudden load without crashing? What did the operational war room look like during those matches?

To be honest, none of this was pre-planned. In startups, keeping that element of surprise is crucial because it keeps the team excited. I personally believe that a lot of attrition in technology today happens for the same reason relationships fail: the loss of excitement. If you keep doing the same monotonous stuff, people leave. We believe that by bringing these unexpected challenges to the floor, we keep an extremely excited group of people who are hungry for the next problem to solve.

We also have a culture of reading customer reviews and celebrating them openly. This immediately resonates with the junior engineer who wrote the code or the designer who created the template. Seeing the real-time response—whether it’s from fans who appreciate it or critics who might destroy the campaign—is incredibly motivating.

There is also a unique sense of pride because AbhiBus is based in Hyderabad. When people think of startups, they usually think of Gurgaon, Noida, Bangalore, or Bombay. For us—whether it's locals or someone like me from Ambala stationed here—there is a pride in being 'ordinary people doing extraordinary things.' We are in a city that isn't traditionally seen as the primary startup hub, perhaps with limited resources compared to others, yet we are creating magic.

We tell our teams that this internal competition between cities is healthy. For India to grow, we don't just need three startup hubs; we probably need 50. That is the only way for us to grow the way we want to.

9) Travel is an intensely competitive landscape, dominated by legacy players like RedBus and deep-pocketed giants like MakeMyTrip. In a market with such aggressive marketing and established incumbents, how does AbhiBus carve out its own lane? What is your specific strategy to win market share without just burning cash on ad wars?

There are definitely things that keep the team and me up at night, but it is surely not the competition. It is the customer. Both start with 'C,' but the customer keeps us much more grounded.

There are two reasons for this. First, this market is extremely huge and still growing. Second, online penetration in the bus industry is the lowest among all modes of transport. Flights are upwards of 80% booked online, and trains are similar. Buses, however, are less than 25% penetrated. That makes us believe that three-quarters of the customers are waiting to be disrupted or given a motivation to book online. That is why we focus on customer problems and product fixes more than just numbers.

Now, regarding 'stalking' the competition—we do check customer behavior, ratings, and the features people like or dislike. But we don't just limit this to our direct competition; we read reviews for platforms in general, whether it's about UPI penetration, credit card preferences, or general app expectations.

I'll give you a simple example. Apple's user base in India is growing very fast. They introduced the 'Dynamic Island' feature on the top of the screen.

We didn't want to wait for another travel company to adopt that feature and then react to it. We saw Zomato using it for delivery tracking and Google Maps for navigation, and we asked, 'Why can't we use that for bus tracking?' So, motivation comes from many flavors of competition, and it doesn't necessarily have to be from the travel segment. It can come from anywhere.

10) You’ve successfully carved out a dominant niche in the bus segment, but now you're expanding into trains and hotels. As you look at the next 3 to 5 years, does the identity of AbhiBus change? Do you see yourself remaining a 'bus-first' platform that offers extras, or are you evolving into a holistic travel ecosystem to compete with the generalist giants?

While AbhiBus's journey is close to 18 years old, we really feel that we were reborn just about three or four years ago, post-COVID. The industry was reborn, and so was AbhiBus, especially following our amazing partnership with the Ixigo group.

I feel we are still at the 'toddler' stage, where we are learning very fast. In the next three years, I see the industry landscape changing rapidly due to certain disciplinary innovations AbhiBus is driving. One of them is the 'New Bus' feature.

We are the first in the industry to introduce a tag that validates the age of the bus via its number plate. When you book a journey for tomorrow, AbhiBus tells you exactly how old the vehicle is—for example, that it is three years old. This involves a mix of fetching data from the RTO and using AI models to predict whether the operator will actually deploy that specific bus.

Imagine the impact of this over the next three years. Operators who do not have new buses might struggle, but our goal isn't for them to suffer. We want to motivate them to talk to OEMs and suppliers. If they have old buses, they need to fix them or replace them to get that age tag working for them.

We have already seen a shift in mindset; most customers now prefer to book a 'new bus' and are ready to pay a premium for it. This will disrupt the industry. More operators will go to their bankers, pay the down payment, and replace their 10-year-old buses with brand new ones.

The short answer is: AbhiBus is excited to contribute to this behavioral change in the industry. That is our 'war cry.' If we solve customer problems and give them what they deserve, there will be a massive improvement in what suppliers provide, and customers will be happy to pay for it.

11) You’re obviously a seasoned traveler, but I’m curious about your personal 'travel DNA.' Are you the type who has a spreadsheet itinerary and packs a week in advance, or are you the 'throw a bag in the car and figure it out on the way' type?

I travel light; I don't overpack. I also place a lot of confidence in quick delivery apps. I feel that even if I forget something like a t-shirt or perfume, I can just order it from Zepto, Blinkit, or Instamart in almost every city today.

Because of that, I feel confident that I don't need to over-plan or stuff my bag with things I might not need. I usually pack my bag probably half an hour before leaving for the station. I think these quick commerce platforms have really spoiled all of us.

12) The acquisition was a major headline moment for the industry, but the real story often happens behind closed doors. Can you take us through that journey? Beyond the paperwork and valuation, how did you manage the human side of the transition—merging cultures, aligning visions, and keeping the teams motivated during such a massive structural shift?

We strongly believe that this marriage was made in heaven. It was a marriage of like-minded people. When we sat at the discussion table, we realized that there were a lot of things Ixigo experienced that AbhiBus had also experienced—the way we approach the customer, our ethics, and the passion the teams carry. It didn't take much time to decide that we wanted to be part of the same group.

It really helped both ways because the passion was the same. Our merger happened in August 2021, when the travel industry was struggling. It was fresh in our minds how both teams stood together in their respective groups, ready to sacrifice personal happiness for a few months just to make sure the ship—or the bus, in this case—remained afloat. We heard the same stories from the Ixigo founders.

Both brands were, so to speak, underdogs. As our management teams discussed, both had that 'cockroach attitude'—the resilience to survive anything. Incidentally, both companies are currently 18 years old. It is like a Karan Arjun story: a reincarnation where you meet a decade after birth, and it turns out to be a perfect match.

We often hear experts say that most mergers fail. So, the fact that this merger worked, and we are now entering our fifth year of existence together and growing fast, shows that it was a good one.

13) You often mention that between AbhiBus and Ixigo, you essentially have the 'pulse' of how India moves. Since you both have decades of data and often share the same customer, how are you actively cross-leveraging that intelligence? How does combining Ixigo's train and flight data with your bus insights create a competitive advantage?

There is a lot of cross-pollination. You can't say that a particular persona is only a bus customer or a flight customer. That realization has really helped because AbhiBus, Ixigo, and ConfirmTkt are all catering to the same customer profile—someone who needs to travel, whether for discretionary reasons or necessity.

Technology has really helped. We don't feel like just one team; it feels like we have cohorts of five or ten teams. A lot of innovation and research time is saved. Very often—at least once a week—we find an innovation cracked by the Ixigo team in Gurgaon, the AbhiBus team in Hyderabad, or the ConfirmTkt team in Bangalore.

It could be anything—a new app functionality, a marketing tool, or a brand-building strategy. There are tons of learnings flowing from three or four directions that merge into a common objective: the customer. If there is a learning about a release or a program that helped the customer, it is immediately passed on to the other Lines of Business (LOB).

Take 'Assured' for example. AbhiBus launched Assured in August 2021. I don't recall who launched it first, but today, Ixigo has an Assured program, ConfirmTkt has one, and AbhiBus has one.

The specific features might differ, but the customer sentiment they address is the same. It really helps when you have like-minded people solving the same customer problems. It saves a lot of time, energy, and money.

14) During peak travel seasons—like Diwali or long weekends—your systems get hammered with massive traffic spikes. Can you take us under the hood? How do you architect your operations to ensure the platform stays rock-solid 24/7 when the load is at its absolute highest?

We often say that there are 'multiple Indias' within India. This gives us the opportunity to battle-test our systems at least every quarter, if not every month.

Take Prayagraj—probably the biggest event Earth could possibly see [the Kumbh Mela]. I would say we were prepared even before that because we had navigated COVID, where we had to help people find buses when inventory didn't exist and borders were sealed. The lessons we learned from Prayagraj were used in the IPL, and the lessons from the IPL will be used henceforth.

In Prayagraj, buses were stopped 50 km before the city border. We had to react fast, moving from idea to production instantly. We are not just a technology company; we are an on-ground enabler. We had to talk to hotels, EV companies, and rickshaw drivers to ensure that passengers—especially women and the elderly who were dropped 50 km away—could get into the city safely.

Fast forward to the IPL. We decided to join hands with the CSK team, which opened the floodgates of demand. When you do a big brand partnership, you get massive traffic from that market. Tamil Nadu is an extremely opposite market to Prayagraj. But the interesting part is the cross-pollination: while the IPL is happening, you might have a Tamil Nadu operator traveling from Coimbatore to Prayagraj, or someone in Lucknow wanting to travel to Chennai for a match.

This is the most exciting part of staying up at night. You have to fix not just your tech infrastructure to handle that load, but also your on-ground infrastructure. Our operations team works tied to the hip with bus operators and customers. If you connect the bus operator to the customer loosely, you will not find a resolution. You need a 'disciplined class monitor' in between to solve problems and make sure everyone speaks the same language.

These experiences give us confidence. Tomorrow, there might be a gathering in Madhya Pradesh, and that will be another opportunity to battle-test our systems. As I said, in India, you get these opportunities every quarter.

15) We hear about new advancements every day—from Generative AI to the Internet of Things (IoT). The tech landscape is shifting rapidly. How is AbhiBus planning to leverage these emerging technologies to take the customer experience to the next level? What is the next big tech leap we can expect from the platform?

We are blessed to be dealing with a technology landscape where there is an amalgamation of hardware and software. We are dealing with buses that have telematics. Telematics gives you a thousand inputs about how fast the driver is going, how rash their driving style is, or even if they are smoking in the bus.

I'll tell you a live experience, and then I'll tell you the technology solution. A lot of bus drivers are tempted to use Instagram—especially post-midnight while driving—which is horrendous if you close your eyes and think about it. We now have the motivation to solve this with technology.

We are working with hardware providers who have tech that can detect the difference between eating, smoking, and swiping through Reels. We sit at a central hub where all this data is passed and processed using AI to make decisive decisions and alert the authorities and service providers.

There are enormous opportunities to solve problems ranging from casual to life-threatening, and this wouldn't be possible without AI—specifically, extremely fast image processing and accurate models.

While some upcoming initiatives are proprietary, one I can share is our recent partnership with T-Safe, an initiative by the Telangana Police. This lets the police track the device location in case of an SOS. It seems simple, but on a bus, the threat could be to one person, a specific gender, or the entire vehicle. Figuring out the problem and enabling cross-border collaboration for police to 'shake hands' and solve the issue requires significant tech integration. Thanks to technology and customer feedback, we find a new problem to solve every day.

16) What is the single coolest AI use case that is live on the platform right now? Is there a specific feature you’ve built that makes you look back and say, 'I'm absolutely proud of this'?

We have a feature called 'Bus Insights,' which is quite deep tech. We have just launched the first variant of it. What Bus Insights does is predict the age and the number plate of the bus you will get, even if you are booking 10 days in advance.

Now, think of yourself as a bus operator who has 100 buses on a service from Delhi to Manali. You could send any of those 100 buses, but the AI we use is able to predict with almost 90% accuracy which specific number plate will be assigned, and we display this on your search result page among 500 options.

Guess what? When you double-click on that, you are able to 'walk' inside the bus. It is an immersive experience where you can see the inside and outside of the specific bus you are going to board 10 days later. I am pretty sure no airline, train, or other bus service provider has done this.

I feel like airlines should do this, because a tall passenger or someone who dislikes a specific seat configuration should be able to see the plane inside out. However, planes have standardization. Buses—specifically models like Ashok Leyland—can be tweaked and configured in 100 different ways by local bodybuilders. So, this industry had a specific need for someone to stand up and make that investment.

It involves complex hardware. I’ll show you the camera I am carrying right now; it is an Insta360 camera, which has to be tweaked with particular software to capture that bus so the customer can get that immersive experience.

This is one of the coolest pieces of tech we recently introduced, and we have upwards of 5,000 buses ready with this solution. It is incredible because it solves the really big problem of not knowing what kind of vehicle you are walking into.

17) Ensuring a seamless experience on a mobile screen is one thing, but delivering it on the ground is another. What are the biggest technical hurdles you face in keeping the app fast and responsive across different devices? And from an operations standpoint, how do you ensure that the actual journey matches the ease of the booking experience?

"If you notice, online bus booking is probably the only mode of transportation where you have to select your specific seat before you confirm your payment. In the case of trains or flights, you usually make your payment for a route—say, Delhi to Chennai—and then you are assigned a seat or select it later. In buses, the very first step is seat selection.

It is similar to BookMyShow, but significantly more complex. A cinema hall might have one or two price tiers. In a bus, there could be 15 to 20 price combinations. A sleeper berth might be more expensive than a seater; the last row might have a different price, and these prices keep changing dynamically.

The complex part is making this presentable and seamless for any gender or age on a small screen. We are fascinated by what Steve Jobs used to say: 'I'm not going to build a product that my family and friends won't use.' So, we encourage our staff and even our parents to try using the app. We feel that if my father, who is 71, can book a ticket on AbhiBus without assistance, then the future of online bus ticketing is very bright.

One specific challenge we faced was that customers often didn't realize they had selected the wrong date because the mobile real estate is small and there are many steps. By the time they paid, the mistake was made. To solve this, we became the first OTA to launch free cancellation about five years ago. Now, for any service—even government buses—if you book a ticket on AbhiBus and realize you made a mistake, you can cancel and get a full refund.

On the backend, this was incredibly difficult. We had to convince partners and get government approvals. But we did it because accidental date selection is a specific 'mobile-first' problem, and free cancellation was the necessary solution."

18) I often think about how difficult it is to maintain just one or two close friendships, yet you are managing relationships with over 4,000 operators. And this isn't a homogeneous group—you have everything from modern tech-savvy fleets to traditional family-run businesses. How do you manage that complexity? How do you ensure a 'win-win' where they are happy with the business growth, and you are happy with the service quality they provide?

The most exciting part is that we have actually stopped tracking the exact number because it grows so fast. There are almost 300 to 400 new operators introduced regularly because it is very easy to buy a bus. It typically requires an investment of about one crore rupees, but with a down payment of just 5 to 10 lakh rupees, you can become a bus operator. This is actually very good for the industry because there are still many routes that lack competition.

To answer your question on management, we have a tech arm that helps them grow their business. We have an app called AbhiBus Edge, which is built specifically for bus operators.

Almost 4,000+ operators use it every day. It gives them AI-based insights and signals—for example, telling them which route to launch for higher profitability or providing pricing guidance to ensure better occupancy. With the use of technology, it has become easier to handle 4,000—or in the future, 40,000—operators because we provide a DIY tool. It lets them onboard, check invoices, file taxes, run discounts, and measure occupancy.

It also tells them: 'Are you doing better than others?' We are blessed that, as an aggregator, we have data on everyone. We never sell the data or charge for it, but we feel it is our job to show them where they stand on quality.

We process close to 8,000 to 10,000 reviews every day. These reviews don't just reflect the operator; they reflect the route. If a specific state or city has services that are generally unprofessional, that is a signal to an operator. They can step in, offer exceptional service, and become number one on that route.

It is fascinating and challenging at the same time. We are looking at half a million routes and a population of 1.4 billion people. I actually wish for the operator count to grow even more. With improved credit facilities, more people can afford to buy buses. Sometimes, you just need that 'smaller dog in the fight' to disrupt the market and change the behavior of the established players. I feel the future is bright, and this number could easily reach 6,000 or 7,000 in the next decade.

19) COVID was an existential crisis, and the travel industry arguably took the hardest hit. How did AbhiBus navigate that storm when the buses literally stopped running? And more importantly, what 'wartime' strategies or efficiencies did you adopt out of necessity that were so effective they became part of your permanent playbook?

The first thing that comes to mind is the Instant Refund. As I mentioned earlier, we were the first OTA to decide that if a bus is cancelled—whether by the operator or because you changed your plans—you shouldn't have to wait 48 hours, 72 hours, or 7 working days.

During COVID, we took a bold decision to process every single transaction immediately, irrespective of the mode of payment. Even if the refund from the bank's side came to us late, we would go ahead and refund the customer first. Technology has improved now and it is more commoditized, but we are very proud that we sensed this problem early. People were cash-strapped; they didn't have liquidity, and every 1,000 rupees meant a lot to them. Even though it cost us a lot, it was the right reaction to a customer problem.

The second reflection is on how to work as a team. This is often an understated fact, usually just a line item in an HR presentation regarding attrition rates. But recently, when we celebrated our 18th anniversary, we didn't just celebrate business milestones; we celebrated the number of employees who bought a car or a house in the last year. It is the company's job to recognize and applaud their hard work.

During COVID, when the buses stood still, many of us faced personal tragedies—losing relatives or parents. The way the team came together was incredible. They created pools of money to help colleagues with ICU bills and didn't even try to take credit for it. Many colleagues still don't know who contributed to help them in their time of need. That kind of support travels miles in a relationship.

Resultantly, our attrition rate is near zero. We have the 'Great Place to Work' tag, but the real test is how people feel at 9:30 AM. We want to debunk the culture where people dread coming to work. We never imposed a strict 'return to office' mandate, yet we see near 100% attendance. People come not by compulsion, but by design—because they feel like a family.
 

20) You’ve described a deeply knit 'family' culture that survived the worst of COVID. But acquisitions are often where unique startup cultures go to die or get diluted. Did you feel a shift after the deal closed? How did you ensure that the specific AbhiBus DNA wasn't lost when you joined the larger group?

At first, culture did play a role. The honest truth is that financially, we felt more comfortable. Fortune favors the brave—the IPO happened last year and was a grand success, but it never went to our heads.

We were so focused on building business processes that when the merger happened, the cultural sync occurred naturally—one problem at a time. We solved problems together and celebrated together. Not even for a day did we feel like we were working with 'another' team.

A lot of our people sit in each other's offices. AbhiBus doesn't have an office in every city, but our team in Karnataka works from the Bangalore office, and people in Gurgaon sit in the Ixigo office. This isn't a policy document; it wasn't designed. It just happens. Everyone looks forward to meeting each other during off-sites or festivals.

It sounds easy to say, but looking back, it happened seamlessly. There was no HR program run to convince us that we share the same culture. There are no drawings on the walls stating, 'This is our cultural statement.' We don't have those.

To be honest, if you ask me to define our culture, it is difficult to put into one word. But you mentioned 'empathy' a few times—maybe that is the word. Empathy towards one another and empathy towards the customers. Everything else, including commercial success, is an offshoot of that. Whether you are gaining success as an individual or as an organization, it is all a byproduct of that culture.

21) I mean, you've traveled extensivel,y but is there still a part of the country in India that you haven't visited yet?

Absolutely. I really want to go to Kashmir now. Incidentally, I had booked a trip there with my wife even before I joined AbhiBus, but that was the year of the devastating floods. The entire tourism industry there was brought to its knees, and we missed the opportunity.

Recently, when the unfortunate Pahalgam incident happened, and we saw the news of everything settling down, my wife and I discussed it. We decided our next vacation has to be in Kashmir because the spirit of the state should never die.

We recalled that when 26/11 happened, both of us were in Bombay just seven days later for business. We didn't stop traveling then. So why should we cancel a leisure trip just because of one incident? The short answer is: I really want to go to Kashmir this time around.

22) Let’s step into a time machine and jump to the year 2030. I want you to paint a picture for me: I’m planning a trip from Jaipur to Goa. What does that end-to-end journey look like in this future? How has the interface changed, and how is AbhiBus orchestrating that experience behind the scenes?

The process has already started. The short answer is that the bridge between air, train, and bus travel will become even narrower.

You picked a brilliant example with Jaipur to Goa. That is a very long route, but similar ones are already running. For instance, the longest bus currently goes from Coimbatore to Prayagraj, and another runs from Hyderabad to Delhi. This is all thanks to the brilliant road infrastructure built in the last decade, and it is only getting better.

The icing on the cake will be higher-capacity batteries in EV buses. When you combine the smooth cushioning of an EV—where the heavy battery pack lowers the center of gravity, making it more planted—with the amazing roads we now have, the journey experience will vastly improve.

By 2030, you might not even need to charge an EV bus when traveling from Jaipur to Goa. You will almost certainly have an EV bus equipped with sleeper coupes.

The length of buses could increase further. Currently, the longest bus is 14.5 meters. My dream is to see a 30-meter-long bus—essentially a train on the road—because our highways will be ready to support that.

Finally, I expect a massive tsunami of Gen Zs and younger generations who will be happy to travel by bus because it will become fashionable. Just as the 'airport look' became a trend in the last five years, maybe a celebrity will introduce a 'bus look.' Then, people will fall in love with bus travel once again.

23) So after such a successful relationship with I think CSK and Dhoni now do you think that this relationship is going to go on ,especially between Abibus and cricket? How do you see that playing out?

Bus travel and cricket are very closely tied. There is virtually no stadium in India that doesn't have a direct bus connection from the capital city.

We decided to join hands with Chennai Super Kings because it is one of the most passionate franchises. While it is hard to compare the passion of different states, the Chennai crowd possesses a unique cricketing sentiment. We wanted a focused approach on that region, which is why we have also tied up with the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL).

The common denominator is the travel surge. On match days, thousands of people travel to the host cities. TNPL matches happen in places like Salem, Coimbatore, and Trichy. We see people traveling from Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Bombay just to watch these games.

It is an understatement to say Indians are cricket lovers. The 'Super 60' offer—where you get a 60% discount every time a player hits a six—is being carried over into the TNPL as well. So, absolutely, you are going to see a lot more of AbhiBus and cricket together.