Jaipur based CarDekho raised $110 million (INR 768 Cr) on Thursday, 03 2019 in the latest series C funding round from existing investors Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia India, CapitalG, and Axis Bank.
CarDekho, India’s leading car search portal enables its users to explore and compare car specifications and prices. The leading auto portal search engine helps with finance and insurance and other facets of car selling and buying; also enables the sale and purchase of used cars.
Amit Jain, CEO, and Co-founder of CarDekho official stated that the company primarily use the whopping fresh sum of funds to brace its finance, insurance, and used car verticals. The company played a sole financial advisor to CarDekho for the transaction till date.
Girnar Software Pvt Ltd, which owns CarDekho has raised $202 million includes the latest funding round, so far. Earlier to this round, the company raised $75 million from investors namely Hillhouse Capital, Tybourne, Sequoia Capital, and Times Internet, among other investors.
Revving up a potential online Auto Ecosystem
CarDekho determines to build a complete ecosystem to access its consumers a secure source to buy and sell cars. It also desires to manage and improve the entire ownership experience, made possible with the purchase of tyres, batteries, accessories, and insurance, and even providing roadside assistance.
David Rhee, a partner at Hillhouse Capital and one of the leading investors, said, “We look forward to continuing to work with CarDekho’s management team as they leverage their deep knowledge of the sector to better serve India’s growing automotive market.”
The online startup actively works with 5000 dealerships across India and facilitate the sale more than 12K cars and 25K two-wheelers per month. The auto search industry works in collaboration with more than 10 financial institutions to assist in used car financing and provide a seamless adventure for buyers and sellers.
It has the track record of more than 73 million monthly traffic, 1.9 million YouTube subscribers, more than 5 million mobile app downloads, and 39 million monthly unique visitors.
“We have been impressed with Amit and the CarDekho team’s ability to maintain market leadership in the auto space and run a capital efficient business,” said Kaushik Anand, head of India investments at CapitalG.
CarDekho is reported to have 40% jump in its revenue landing up with INR 160 Cr in FY18 compared to INR 116 Cr in FY17. The growing success came on the heels of its finance and insurance businesses over the last two years.
Stats: CarDekho prime business moves
Some of the critical business moves made by the company in the last few years.
- August 2016– CarDekho initiated offering digital loans to used car dealers.
- May 2017– Obtained an IRDA licence to launch auto insurance vertical under Girnar Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd.
- August 2018– The auto portal acquired Indian Automotive YouTube Channel Studios Pvt Ltd to bring the ‘best-in-class’ video content as a decision enabler for stakeholders of the company.
- Help on Wheels, Volob Technologies are some of the acquired companies by the company in the automobile segment.
- CarDekho extended its operations internationally such as Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia under the brand names of CarBay and OTO.
CarDekho which went live in 2008, marked themselves with unusual moves and success at the heels, immersing with the attribute of assisting and changing the phase of auto-India by leveraging the use of technologies and marketplace. It competes with Droom, Bumper PitStop, Cartisan, etc. Amit Jain aims to step in the EV( electric vehicle) revolution in the country, believing that India is at the cruces of both technology upgrades and EV.
CarDekho undoubtedly kick-started 2019 with a roaring funding round and positively moving in the right direction using flawless operations.
