IBS Software is a travel technology and aviation solution company that has remained in business for 25 years, overcoming multiple global challenges. Started in Kerala, the business is now the largest unicorn in the state. Initially focused on the aviation industry, the company has expanded into the oil & gas logistics, cruise, and hospitality industries, offering innovative, agile software products to replace old, legacy systems.
IBS Software was launched by aviation expert and technopreneur VK Mathews. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and Harvard Business School, Mathews turned entrepreneur after working with the Emirates group in their IT division for more than 15 years. The company was started in Trivandrum with 55 engineers and one customer in 1997. Today, its operations are spread across 60 cities in 35 countries, employing over 5,000 professionals from 42 nationalities, with some of the biggest names in the aviation industry as its customers. In 2023, UK-based Apax Partners LLP invested $450 million to acquire a minority stake in IBS Software, valuing the enterprise at over $2 billion. Mathews owns 70 per cent of the shareholding.
Entry into new business
IBS Software has remained an unlisted company, although private equity majors like General Atlantic and Blackstone have held minority shareholdings in the past. Earlier this month, heralding a significant foray into the Indian aviation space, the company signed a landmark deal with Air India to digitally transform its cargo operations. Since the takeover of the national carrier in 2022, Tata has pursued an aggressive growth strategy and embarked on a significant digital transformation of its core businesses across passenger services, fleet, and cargo operations. The deal also comes at a time when the country’s aviation sector is poised for exponential growth, with increasing passenger traffic and huge fleet orders. With customers becoming more demanding, Indian carriers will improve efficiency by intensifying technology adoption both in scale and sophistication.
The company helps customers innovate and re-engineer their businesses using next-gen technology. Their strategy is to achieve business goals by improving revenue and market share, optimising operational costs, enhancing efficiency, and providing a differentiated experience for their customers. They have created highly valuable software assets, with a world-class team, earning the trust of the industry by delivering on their commitments.
Currently, it has nearly 20 large enterprise-wide proprietary technology solutions that cater to business areas like airline passenger services, cargo & logistics operations, flight operations and crew management, airport operations, and aircraft maintenance engineering. These solutions are offered on an SaaS model, making them reliable, scalable, functionally superior, easy to use, and cost-effective. IBS Software is a global leader in the cargo management and passenger loyalty domains, where 80 per cent of the air cargo movements in and out of Japan and Australia are managed by its software solutions.
VK Mathews says: “Most businesses are evolving into technology businesses, meaning that for companies to survive and succeed they must use technology more intensely than before. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend. The airline industry is no different. In a digitally connected world of thousands of travel suppliers and billions of consumers, the business focus is shifting from the supply side to the demand side. Airlines will have to personalise their offerings to give consumers what they want rather than what they have.”
“As the industry recovers from the pandemic and pent-up demand manifests, there is a need to make travel better and not just safer. All this means that the role of technology is becoming more prominent in the airline industry than ever before. Going forward, the value of an enterprise will tilt more towards digital assets than physical assets. Clearly, the success of airlines will depend on increasing the technology intensity in businesses to drive innovation,” states Mathews.
From its modest beginnings, IBS Software now stands poised to be the number one IT service provider to the global aviation industry. It has made nine strategic acquisitions in the US, Canada, Europe, and India, enhancing its domain expertise, widening the product portfolio, and increasing its leadership bandwidth. Its growing list of airline customers includes some of the biggest names like American Airlines, Emirates, Cathay Pacific, KLM, Lufthansa, Air Canada, British Airways, Qantas, Delta, Air New Zealand, ANA, Singapore Airlines, China Southern, JAL, LATAM, Etihad, and Qatar Airways.