GoMechanic Bags $42 Mn From Tiger Global; Eyes International Expansion

Automobile after-sales service and spare parts startup GoMechanic has announced a $42 Mn Series C funding round led by Tiger Global. Existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Orios Venture Partners & Chiratae Ventures also participated in the round.

The company said the funding would be used to accelerate growth and expansion in Tier 2 and 3  cities in India. It will also be bulking up its technology team and launching operations in international markets. GoMechanic is looking to expand from the current 35 cities to 100+ cities in India and triple the size of its technology team from 60 employees currently.

The company had raised $4.9 Mn (INR 35 Cr) in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital and Orios Venture Partners in January 2019. The latest round also includes $5 Mn buyback of employee stock option plan (ESOPs) of some early GoMechanic employees.

With this round, GoMechanic had raised a total of $63 mn from marquee investors such as Sequoia, Orios Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures. Last year, Pawan Munjal, Chairman, MD & CEO, Hero Motocorp invested an undisclosed amount in the company.

Founded in April 2016 by Amit Bhasin, Kushal Karwa, Nitin Rana and Rishabh Karwa, GoMechanic is primarily a digital car maintenance and servicing app which connects car owners with certified automobile repair and maintenance service providers in their area. It also provides original spare parts for all the services booked through its partner service centres, who procure these parts specifically for the vehicle.

A GoMechanic spokesperson said, “We will continue to invest in expanding our operations and spare parts supply chain in India while also exploring global opportunities. Our intention is to make India the innovation hub in auto aftermarket technology and services similar to how it has become a manufacturing hub for a lot of global auto players.”

According to the IBEF report, the automobile industry in India is the seventh-largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in the world. The automotive industry is expected to reach $251.4 to $282.8 Bn (INR 16.16 to 18.18 Tn) by 2026. In the auto repair and maintenance market, GoMechanic competes with the likes of Cartisan, Bumper, CleanseCar, Mind Your Fleet, SparesHub, Hoopy, BookMyTime among others.

Currently, GoMechanic has over 600 car repair workshops across 35 cities in India, including Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Kolkata.  It claims to service more than 2 Mn cars annually and is targeting 10 Mn customers by 2021.

In his comments, Abhishek Mohan, Principal, Sequoia India, said, “Since Sequoia Capital India first partnered with GoMechanic in 2018, the company has had a very strong growth trajectory. It has expanded geographically to several cities and made a deep foray into spares which is a $7 Bn opportunity with large profit pools. The team has also deployed tech across the value chain exceptionally well. This additional growth capital will enable the company to grow faster and tap into newer opportunities.”

Besides GoMechanic, other companies working in the auto repair and servicing market include Bengaluru-based Cartisan, Hoopy, SparesHub, Bumper, BookMyTime, CleanseCar and Mind Your Fleet, among others.

In October, CleanseCar raised $2 Mn in Pre Series A round from 10 investors including Haldiram’s Family Office, Venture Catalysts founder Apoorv Ranjan Sharma and Swiggy CFO Rahul Bothra, among others.