In a bid to strengthen its product and analytics capabilities, Gurgaon-based auto portal, CarDekho.com has announced the acquisition of BuyingIQ.com, a price comparison site and intelligent shopping engine, for an undisclosed amount.
This is the second acquisition for the Jaipur-based Girnar Software Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates CarDekho.com, BikeDekho.com and PriceDekho.com, after it took over Naspers-owned Gaadi.com in September last year.
Buying IQ was founded in 2012 by IIT graduate Piyush Taneja and BITS Pilani graduate Saumitra Purohit, who were later joined by Avinash Kumar (ex-Booz & Co.). It is primarily a price comparison portal, took a more comprehensive analytical approach by bringing in data-driven buying recommendations.
As per the deal terms, BuyingIQ will continue to operate as an independent portal, the founders are expected to take up larger roles within GirnarSoft. Piyush and Saumitra will take up leadership positions in the Product and Technology teams, while Avinash will drive select strategic initiatives within the company.
With an exclusive focus on electronics, BuyingIQ at present is working with almost all the ecommerce majors including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Ebay and Amazon, and has been successfully monetizing its data and content capabilities by partnering with some of the key ecommerce and online classifieds companies in India.
So far, the platform has grown its user base multi-fold and at present, serves over 1.2 Mn users every month via its website and android app.
Speaking on this move, Amit Jain, CEO and Co-founder of GirnarSoft said, “CarDekho sees immense potential in the product and data analytics capabilities of BuyingIQ. In our next step to become a global auto classifieds giant, Cardekho’s aims to harness this strength of BuyingIQ in its services for car dealers and consumers.”
In the age of big data, great innovation for developing customer driven solutions comes from analytics. There are also synergies between BuyingIQ and other products of GirnarSoft such as PriceDekho.com and a lot of exciting work will happen on that front too, he added.
BuyingIQ has developed an algorithm which scores products for prospective customers by analyzing millions of curated product reviews from all over the internet. It then puts a fair score, based on which it tells a user whether to buy a product or skip it. Users can also compare prices from online stores, read quality reviews from its tech community, get product recommendations and set product/price alerts.
“BuyingIQ’s vision has been to enable consumers make smart buying decisions. Cardekho’s similar vision and a very product-centric approach is something that we found inspiring. Their success in the auto classifieds market has been unprecedented, and we are excited to be a part of this team,” said Piyush Taneja, Founder & CEO BuyingIQ.
Founded in March 2008, CarDekho.com is India’s leading auto portal catering to the aspiring buyers, the proud owners, the auto enthusiasts and die-hard fans and dealers of cars across the country. The company claims to get around 11 Mn visits per month with 7.5 Mn unique visitors per month. Earlier, Ratan Tata had invested undisclosed amount in GirnarSoft. Prior to this, it had raised INR 307 Cr. from Hillhouse Capital and Tybourne Capital.
CarTrade.com is yet another online auto classifieds platform and recently got funded from Chip Perry, former founding chief executive of Auto Trader, the largest online auto classifieds company in the US.
