Online auto marketplace CarDekho has today announced raising of $70 million in a new Series D financing round. Some of the investors that participated in this were Sunley House Capital Management, an existing investor Sequoia India and Hillhouse. With this round, the company has collectively raised a total of $250 million till date.
The round was led by Ping An’s Global Voyager Fund. China based Ping An also holds a stake in the country’s largest auto portal, Autohome. This will be the fund’s first investment in India, continuing to show an increasing trend among Chinese investors to put money in Indian startups, as growth plateaus in the Chinese homeland.
CarDekho says that this investment will be used to strengthen its transaction businesses and expand its international footprint. CarDekho is trying to expand into other countries. As a part of this initiative, the upstart started operations in Indonesia first under the brand name OTO.com. OTO.com has become the number 1 auto portal in the country already. CarDekho also recently acquired the Philippines operation of Carmudi.
CarDekho has a solid footprint in India with around 42% automobile sales being influenced by the platform. CarDekho has tie-ups with over 4,000 new auto dealerships and 3,000 used car dealers across India.
The company recently announced it’s H1 results for the year 2019-20. The company generated a revenue of $28 million in the first half of the fiscal year. Despite India’s auto sector — and cars in particular — facing its worst slowdown in many years, CarDekho’s new auto business showed a robust growth of 30 percent. The used-car and financial services businesses grew by 120 per cent and 135 per cent, respectively. The biggest growth was in the insurance and warranty sector, showing a growth rate of 525 percent.
