CarTrade, an online automobile classifieds portal, has today announced that it has secured $55 million funding in its latest Series G round of funding. This investment was led by its existing investor Temasek and a US-based family office.
While the company has confirmed the said funding round, it has not revealed the names of investors and cited confidentiality agreement as the reason. Notably, Temasek is the only existing investor that has participated in this round. CarTrade’s other investors, including global PE giant Warburg Pincus and US-based investment firm March Capital, have not participated in this round.
CarTrade launched auto finance-as-a-service in October last year, in partnership with banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFC). It enabled them to document and evaluate used cars to enable loans. The capital raised in this funding round will be used by CarTrade for user acquisition to initiate new offerings such as auto financing. The company is also open to making all-cash offers for acquisition. Commenting on this, Vinay Sanghi, founder of the company, said,
It could be anything — ventures offering unique products or technologies — that can add to the new and used car ecosystem, including car insurance, car servicing, or even in newer technologies, such as the Internet of Things.
Further, the company says that it is also in talks with potential investors and is targeting nearly $30-50 million in its next round of funding. This transaction is expected to close over the next few months.
Prior to this funding round, the startup had raised $145 million funding in January 2016, one of the largest funding deals in the country’s online classifieds space. In November 2015, the company had acquired CarWale for $90 million in an all-cash deal.
After acquiring CarWale, the combined entity is claimed to be working with about 8,000 new and used-car dealer partners. The platform, according to the CEO, witnesses 15 million unique customers monthly and has over 2 million listings for used cars. It also claims to auction over 2 million vehicles to the wholesale market every year.
As per reports, India’s automotive sector is estimated at $74 billion and is expected to achieve a turnover of $300 billion by 2026, expanding annually by about 15 percent.
