CarDekho enters unicorn club with $250 million funding led by Leapfrog Investments
The round includes $200 million Series E equity and $50 million as debt in its pre-IPO round, sources in the know told ET. The new round values CarDekho at $1.2 billion, breaching the benchmark for a startup to be called unicorn.
US-based Canyon Partners, Harbor Spring Capital, Mirae Asset, Franklin Templeton also participated in the round, along with existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Sunley House.
The resources will be utilised to grow the company’s used car, financial services and insurance businesses, besides expand into new markets, said people aware of the development.
An emailed query to CarDekho seeking comments on the development did not elicit any response.
CarDekho had
last raised $70 million at a valuation of $725 million in a Series D funding led by Hong Kong-based Ping An, which owns Global Voyager, in November 2019.
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ET had
reported on the company’s plans to raise funds on June 10, 2021. CarDekho Cofounder and CEO Amit Jain had at the time said the company will utilise the resources from the fund raise to expand its recently launched ecommerce platform to retail used cars, which has seen strong traction since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Demand for used cars has increased since the beginning of the pandemic, with consumers looking for personal mobility options to reduce the risk of infection, but at a cheaper cost amid economic uncertainties.
As many as 4.4 million used cars are sold in the lndian market every year. The segment, currently dominated by unorganised players, is estimated by the industry to double by 2026.
With new-age vehicles with higher gross merchandise value coming into the supply chain over the next five years, market value of vehicles sold is expected to treble to $60 billion in this period.
CarDekho is targeting a double-digit market share in India’s pre-owned cars space over the next five years but faces stiff competition from rivals Cars24 and Spinny.
CarDekho, which sells vehicles online in the National Capital Region, Mumbai and Bengaluru, plans to expand operations to the top 20 cities in the country by March 2022, Jain had said. The company aims to retail a minimum of 4,000-5,000 vehicles every month on its ecommerce platform by the end of this fiscal year.
CarDekho has so far raised $255 million and is backed by investors including Ratan Tata, Sequoia India, Hillhouse Capital, Ping An, Sunley House, CapitalG (formerly known as Google Capital), HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Times Internet, Trifecta, Kreatif Media Karya and Dentsu. Times Internet is part of Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, which publishes The Economic Times.
Founded in 2008, Jaipur-based CarDekho group operates auto sites such as CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, ZigWheels.com and BikeDekho.com. Its fintech platform is the fourth largest used car retail loan originator in India, behind HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Mahindra Finance.
( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a economictimes.indiatimes.com feed.)
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