Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., the holding company of India’s leading entertainment ticketing website BookMyShow.com, announced an investment by Accel Partners, one of the leading global investors in Internet businesses. As a part of this transaction, Accel will invest USD 18 Mn through a primary infusion of capital and secondary sale of shares from existing investors.

Avendus Capital was the sole financial advisor for this transaction.

On signing the deal, Mr. Ashish Hemrajani, Founder & CEO of BookMyShow said, “The funding from Accel comes at an interesting inflection point in our journey and is a strong vindication of our efforts to create India’s leading online entertainment ticketing platform. We look forward to leveraging Accel’s global Internet experience and Network18’s continued support to expand our footprint and help take our customer experience to the next level.” Commenting on the transaction, Mr. Aashish Bhinde, Executive Director (Digital Media & Technology) at Avendus said, “This transaction marks the coming together of one of the best teams in the consumer Internet industry with one of the most experienced investors in the space. I am confident this combination will enable BookMyShow to become the default entertainment destination for consumers in India.”

Mr. Prashanth Prakash, Partner of Accel India said, “BookMyShow caught our attention because it has become synonymous with online entertainment and ticketing. We are constantly striving to invest in businesses that assume a leadership position by driving the definition and growth of their respective categories. We are very excited to add one of India’s pre-eminent Internet brands to our portfolio of investments in India.” Mr. Sameer Gandhi, Partner of Accel US further commented, “The Internet is playing a crucial role in bringing goods and services to the masses in India and will produce the next generation of Indian consumer franchises. BookMyShow has demonstrated exemplary execution in creating a large online community, and in our view, has the potential to become the preeminent entertainment destination for India. We look forward to playing our part in helping the company realize that vision.”

Commenting on the transaction, Mr. Sarbvir Singh, Head - Investments of Network18 said, “In partnership, with the BookMyShow team, we have created a premier asset in the digital commerce space and built value for all stakeholders. We believe that Accel’s global Internet experience combined with the passion of the BookMyShow team will help the company take customer experience to the next level while continuing to build on its market leadership. The transaction has allowed us at Network18 to profitably monetize a part of our investment while allowing us to maintain a large position in the company to participate in the next phase of BookMyShow’s journey.”

About BookMyShow.com

BookMyShow.com is the largest entertainment ticketing portal in India with over 90% market share in the online entertainment ticketing space. Headquartered in Mumbai, BookMyShow.com also has offices in New Zealand and Malaysia. BookMyShow.com has an enviable kitty of over 1300 screens spanning across 250 cinemas in more than 100 cities. BookMyShow.com tickets for over 500 events every year across India. In the arena of Sports, 75% of India's largest sporting events are managed by BookMyShow.com. Some of them include Formula 1, Indian Premier League, Indian Cricket League, Aircel Chennai Open, Super Fight League, Yonex Badminton Championships, etc. With over 33 million page views per month, BookMyShow.com has an active and loyal database of over 3million happy consumers. It has a fan following of over 1.3 million Facebook and Twitter users. BookMyShow.com has special downloadable mobile applications for Blackberry, iPhone, Android and Windows phone. It has also been awarded in the category of 'The Hottest Company of the Year-2011-12’ and ‘The Company to Watch Out for' in the prestigious CNBC Young Turks Award. On an average, BookMyShow.com sells more than a million tickets per month. BookMyShow.com is one of the top three entertainment e-commerce websites in India. For more information, please visit www.bookmyshow.com 

About Accel Partners

Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel. Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories, including 99designs, Actuate, AdMob, Agile Software, Alfresco, Angry Birds (Rovio), Atlassian, BBN, Bonobos, Braintree, Brightcove, Cloudera, ComScore, Diapers.com (Quidsi), Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, FusionIO, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, IronPlanet, JBoss, Kayak,Lookout, Macromedia, metroPCS, MoPub, OPOWER, Polycom/PictureTel, Playfish, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Redback, Responsys, Riverbed, Spotify, Squarespace, SunRun, Trulia, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wonga, XenSource and Zimbra. In India, Accel has made investments in companies such as Ace Creative Learning, Babyoye, EduPristine, enStage, Flipkart, Forus, FreshDesk, HealthcareMagic, Mitra Biotech, MuSigma, Myntra, Perfint, Probe, PropTiger, QwikCilver, SherSingh, SureWaves, Trivone, Vinculum and Virident. For more information, please visit www.accel.com 

About Network18 Group

The Network18 Group is a media and entertainment company with interests in television, internet, films, e-commerce, magazines, mobile content and allied businesses. Through its subsidiary ‘TV18 Broadcast Ltd.’ [BSE: 532800, NSE: TV18BRDCST], the group operates news channels - CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, CNBC-TV18 Prime HD, CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBNLokmat (a Marathi regional news channel in partnership with the Lokmat group). TV18 also operates a joint venture with Viacom, called Viacom18, which houses a portfolio of popular entertainment channels – Colors, Colors HD,MTV, SONIC, Comedy Central, VH1 and Nick - and Viacom18 Motion Pictures, the group’s filmed entertainment business. TV18 and Viacom18 have also recently announced a strategic joint venture called IndiaCast, a multiplatform ‘content asset monetization’ entity mandated to drive domestic and international channel distribution, placement services and content syndication for the bouquet of channels from TV18,Viacom18 and other broadcasters. TV18 has also forayed into the Indian factual entertainment space through A+E Networks | TV18 (Joint venture between A+E Networks and TV18 Broadcast), which has recently launched a new channel – HistoryTV18. Through ‘Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.’ [BSE: 532798, NSE: Network18], the group operates its digital, publishing and e-commerce assets including moneycontrol.com, ibnlive.com, in.com and firstpost.com. ‘Network18’ also operates ecommerce properties like HomeShop18 and bookmyshow.com and publishes Forbes India, the nation's first local edition of a foreign news magazine title and one of the world’s most influential business brands, in collaboration with Forbes Media. In addition, through ‘Network18’, the group operates Newswire18, providing real time financial information and news terminal services, and Network18 Publishing, a player in the special interest publishing space as well as E18, the group’s event management venture and Sport18, its sports management and marketing venture. ‘Network18’ has investments in Yatra, DEN Networks and other Capital18 portfolio companies. For more information, please visit www.network18online.com 

About Avendus Capital Pvt. Ltd.

Avendus Capital is a leading financial services firm which provides customised solutions in the areas of financial advisory, equity capital markets and wealth management. The firm relies on its extensive track record, in-depth domain understanding and knowledge of the economic and regulatory environment, to offer research based solutions to its clients that include institutional investors, corporates and high net worth families. Avendus Capital has consistently been ranked among the top-five corporate finance advisors in India and has emerged as the advisor of choice for cross-border M&A deals and has closed 40 crossborder transactions in the past 4 years. Avendus Securities through its Institutional Equities practice is able to offer clients best-in-class research-driven advice to help them take investment decisions, while Avendus PE Advisors manages funds raised from its investors by investing in public markets and private equity. Headquartered in Mumbai, the firm has offices in New Delhi and Bangalore. Avendus Capital, Inc (US) and Avendus Capital (UK) Pvt. Ltd. located in New York and London respectively, are wholly owned subsidiaries offering M&A and Private Equity syndication services to clients in the respective regions. For more information, please visit www.avendus.com