CarDekho.com, the online used cars discovery platform which raised a $50 million Series B round two weeks ago, has raised an undisclosed amount from Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of one of India’s biggest business conglomerates, the Tata Group.
This fresh round marks yet another major investment by Ratan Tata into India’s rapidly expanding digital market ecosystem. He had earlier invested, in a personal capacity, in e-commerce platform Snapdeal.com, online jewellery store BlueStone, and online furniture shop UrbanLadder.
This investment may have come at just the right time, considering the fact that India is on-course to become world’s third largest car market, with the share of used cars rising at significant pace.
CarDekho.com, owned by Jaipur-based Girnar Software Pvt. Ltd. is an online car discovery platform, where in buyers and sellers can purchase or sell used cars. The company is now valued in excess of $300 Million, making it one of the most valued start-up to come out of the state of Rajasthan. The current saw Ratan Tata subscribing to freshly-issued shares in CarDekho’s parent company, Girnar Software.
Amit Jain, co-Founder at CarDekho said,
We will use the funds for brand building and marketing, besides innovating n the mobile app front, We will also look at acquiring start-ups to enhance our technology platform. Our vision is also to be a company with global footprint through our innovative products and service.
The company further aims to expand its workforce by hiring 1,000 more people this year.
CarDekho pegs its revenue growth at over three-fold since 2013. The company primarily earns revenues by charging certain percentage of the selling cost which a seller gets, while marketing a used car on its platform. The company had earlier raised a $15 Million Series A round led by Sequoia Capital.
The company claims to have 10 million unique visitors on its site and expects to garner growth through online advertising by carmakers, subscription charged to used car dealers and new car sales through the portal. It had earlier acquired a similar car discovery portal, Gaadi.com, to further scale up its presence in the growing used cars market in India.
