Online Marketplace Droom Acquires Augmented Reality Startup Visiolab Ideas

Indian online automobile marketplace Droom, on Thursday (October 1), announced that it has acquired Delhi-NCR based augmented reality (AR) startup Visiolab Ideas for an undisclosed amount. 

With the acquisition, Droom will look to leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), AR, virtual reality (VR), machine learning and big data to offer a better customer experience on its automobile commerce platform. One of the ways this will be done by introducing a live virtual tour of vehicles for customers, who will be able to experience the same in 3D as well. With the Visiolab acquisition, Droom will launch an AR/VR lab to enhance the customer experience. Visiolab founders Navdeep Singh (CEO), Sahil Sethi (CTO), will join the Droom team. 

“At Droom we have built Industry-leading technology-focused products like OBV, Eco, Droom History, Droom Discovery, and Droom Credit for bridging the gap in buying and selling vehicles online. This acquisition will further enhance our capabilities in offering delightful customer experiences and a completely online vehicle buying experience,” said Akshay Singh, chief strategy officer, Droom. 

Droom is an AI and data science-driven online transactional platform for used automobiles, ranging from bicycles to aeroplanes. It has four marketplace formats — B2C, C2C, C2B, and B2B — and three pricing formats — Fixed Price, Best Offer, and Auction. Droom also offers other automobile-related services such as insurance, loan and warranty. 

Droom claims to have a presence in more than a thousand Indian cities, with more than 45 Mn monthly visitors, 12 Mn app downloads, and 6.5 Mn Facebook followers.

Droom is headquartered in India with subsidiaries in the US. The company has so far raised close to $125 Mn over six rounds of funding. Some of its prominent investors are Lightbox, Beenext, Beenos, Digital Garage, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, and Integrated Assets Management.

“Augmented Reality is the future, not just in the automotive sector, but for education, healthcare, and almost all of the major fields in the market. That is what got us in this field and gave us the motivation to develop the technology that could bring the showroom experience to your doorstep, in the comfort of your homes,” said Navdeep Singh, founder and CEO, Visiolab.

Visiolab Ideas is a technology and an innovation-oriented company which looks to leverage augmented reality (AR) and related technologies in various sectors such as education, healthcare and ecommerce, among others. The company competes with SmartVizX, Rizort and Scapic, among other Indian startups in the AR segment.