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- Investments to be used for global expansion, deepen technology advancement and growth of cars, bikes & financing business in India
Dubai: CARS24, one of the leading e-commerce platforms for pre-owned vehicles, announced today the closing of AED1.2 billion round in Series F equity funding. This nearly doubles the valuation to AED6.75 billion.
The Series F equity round was led by DST Global, Falcon Edge and SoftBank Vision Fund 2* along with participation from Tencent and existing investors Moore Strategic Ventures and Exor Seeds. With the latest investment, CARS24 will expand its global presence as well as further build its cars, bikes, and financing business in India, while continuing to invest in technology that delivers the best customer experience possible.
CARS24 is the market leader in the online used car segment with over 90% market share in India and has clocked more than 13 million monthly traffic and over 400,000 transactions till date. The company has already sold over 1000 cars in the UAE since the launch of its operations in April this year.
CARS24 also officially announced its launch with a new campaign last week in Australia. This funding and vote of confidence from top global investors comes just months after CARS24’s expansion into the UAE and Australian markets.
Speaking on the development, Vikram Chopra, Co-founder & CEO, CARS24 said, “Just last month, we celebrated our six successful years of operations, and we are incredibly excited to share that CARS24 has officially closed its largest round of funding to date. We have been working relentlessly over the last six years to fulfil thousands of people's dreams of owning a car by transforming the customer's journey - 'the CARS24 way' - that is hassle-free, safe and transparent. With this investment, we will continue to penetrate into existing car, bikes and financing business while venturing into new overseas geographies this year. With an extensive line-up of vehicles, we entered the UAE earlier this year with a goal of bringing a car within reach of every car enthusiast.”
Founded in 2015, CARS24 exists to transform the way consumers buy and sell cars by leveraging technology at every leg of the consumer journey to solve genuine pain points and deliver a seamless experience.
Rahul Mehta, Managing Partner at DST Global said, “CARS24 is at the forefront of transforming the way consumers buy and sell cars by providing a unique end-to-end digital shopping and transaction experience. They have emerged as the undisputed leader in the used car space in India and early traction in international markets is exceeding expectations. We love backing founders who are bold and ambitious thinkers and couldn’t be more excited to enter the second innings of our long-lasting partnership with CARS24.”
“We have studied used car platforms globally and are struck by the similarities we see between CARS24 and analogous businesses that have scaled successfully. CARS24 has cemented its first-mover advantage by building wide-ranging supply side moats, which in turn drive demand liquidity on the platform. In positioning itself as a buying and selling solution for consumers, CARS24 drives immense top-of-mind recall. It is rare to find a business as focused on the consumer experience and as driven to ensure it is outstanding via the use of data science and technology. Finally, we are deeply impressed by the founders’ leadership, and are thrilled to back them as they transform the used car industry in India and scale internationally across MENA and SE Asia”, said Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-founder of Falcon Edge Capital.
Munish Varma, Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers said, “CARS24 is building a data-enabled tech platform that is organizing the fragmented used car market in India. We have been closely tracking its approach and efforts that have disrupted the used car retailing in India.”
Sumer Juneja, Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers added, “We believe CARS24 is enhancing the customer experience in the used car industry with its sharp focus on technology. We will continue to support this growth given our expertise in e-commerce businesses across markets”.
CARS24 has made a significant mindset shift in the UAE by taking the entire car buying experience online. Every car bought from CARS24 comes with a 7 days return policy and 2 years warranty.
About CARS24:
CARS24 is the largest online transaction platform for pre-owned vehicles in India. Founded in 2015 by Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal and Gajendra Jangid, it offers an efficient, reliable, and hassle-free transacting experience to customers to buy and sell pre-owned vehicles (cars and bikes) as well as financing options. CARS24 operates in over 130 cities in India. Since its inception, CARS24 has built a strong technology backbone that features various first-of-its-kind offerings including an innovative auction format, a state-of-the-art proprietary inspection app, and a powerful algorithm that matches supply and demand across the country. In addition, CARS24 also features an innovative price discovery mechanism for used vehicles.
CARS24 is the first player in the pre-owned vehicle industry to procure a non-banking financial company (NBFC) license and launch consumer lending business with CARS24 Financial Services and two-wheeler segment BIKES24. It is backed by marquee investors like Sequoia India, SoftBank, Falcon Edge, Exor Seeds (venture arm of Exor, one of the world’s leading holding companies controlled by the Agnelli Family), DST Global, Kingsway Capital (London based multi-billion US$ fund), Unbound (global investment firm headquartered in London), Moore Strategic Ventures and KCK (Silicon Valley & New York based investment firm).
Media contact:
Prem A. Ramachandran
White Water Public Relations
prem@whitewaterpr.com
Dubai, UAE
*As of the date of this press release, SoftBank Group Corp. has made capital contributions to allow investments by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 ("SVF 2") in certain portfolio companies. The information included herein is made for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in any fund, including SVF 2. SVF 2 has yet to have an external close, and any potential third-party investors shall receive additional information related to any SVF 2 investments prior to closing.
© Press Release 2021
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