CarDekho raises $110 mn to expand used car biz

CarDekho, India’s most popular Auto portal laid off employees and slashed salaries as the company sees the rising disruption across the industry caused by the novel coronavirus. (Source: startupsinindia.com)

CarDekho, the flagship portal of GirnarSoft, Thursday said it has raised USD 110 million (over Rs 770 crore) from various investors which it plans to utilise to expand its various business verticals.

The company has raised the capital in a Series C funding with investments from Sequoia India, Hillhouse, CapitalG (Alphabet growth investment arm) and Axis Bank.

"We plan to infuse the raised capital in used car business, insurance and finance verticals...These segments have huge potential to scale up and we are completely focused on getting them to a massive scale," CarDekho CEO and co-founder Amit Jain told PTI.

With this latest round of funding, the company has so far raised a total of USD 185 million, he added.

CarDekho works directly with more than eight car and motorcycle manufacturers, and accounts for 15-30 percent of their combined annual sales. It also works with 5,000 dealerships across India.

In addition, it works in collaboration with more than 10 financial institutions across the country to facilitate used car financing.

"Our used cars engine has scaled up tremendously and has also enabled us to incubate allied businesses like insurance and finance as they are one of the largest opportunities ahead of us," Jain said.

The opportunity lies in extending formal credit and insurance coverage to the new-to-formal economy population and will continue to be a focus area for the company, he added.

Earlier this year, Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata had also invested in the company.

CarDekho is the flagship site of GirnarSoft, and along with its other group sites like ZigWheels, Gaadi, PowerDrift and BikdeDekho, is one of the country's leading digital automotive solutions providers.