CARS24 Acquires Automotive Forum Team-BHP

Used car marketplace Cars24 has acquired homegrown automotive forum Team-BHP.

With this investment, CARS24 will strengthen Team-BHP’s product, tech stack and AI capabilities, the latter said in a blog post. However, it didn’t disclose the financial details of the deal or the amount of stake acquired.

Team-BHP added that it will continue to be operated independently by its founding team. 

Team-BHP was founded in 2004 by a group of car enthusiasts to form a community of like-minded people. It claims to have grown since then to become India’s largest automotive forum with 4.5 Mn posts and over 20 Mn annual visitors. 

It provides car-related content, including reviews of newly launched cars, industry analysis, dealership & finance company reviews, among others. It claims to have a “zero-sponsored content policy”, strict moderation, and community-first approach.

“With CARS24 backing us, and their technology and data layered into our platform, we can now build with more scale, more depth, and more intent. This is about giving enthusiasts and owners sharper tools and deeper insights, without ever losing the independence, transparency, and integrity that brought us all here in the first place,” Team-BHP founder Rush Parekh said on the acquisition. 

Founded in 2015 by Vikram Chopra, Ruchit Agarwal, Gajendra Jangid, and Mehul Agrawal, Cars24 operates a marketplace for buying and selling used cars. It offers car financing and also earns revenue through service fees, parking charges, sale of value-added services like insurance assistance and warranties.

The acquisition comes at a time when CARS24 is on an expansion spree. The company has rolled out several new initiatives over the past three months to expand its footprint.

Last month, it unveiled an aggregator platform to facilitate AI-powered video buying experience. The unicorn also rolled out its credit platform LOANS24 in February.

Besides, the company also launched a discovery platform to find nearby driving schools on its app.

On the financial front, CARS24 said that it recorded a 25% jump in its operating revenue to INR 6,917.1 Cr in FY24 from INR 5,529.6 Cr in the previous year. However, net loss also rose 7% to INR 498.4 Cr during the year under review from INR 467.7 Cr in the previous year.

CARS24 competes with the likes of CarDekho, Droom, Spinny among others.

As per a report by Mordor Intelligence, the Indian used car market is estimated to clock a CAGR of 15.1% and reach a size of $73.52 Bn by 2030.