Online Used Car Marketplace Cars24 Raises $49.7 Mn

Gurugram-based online used car marketplace Cars24 raised $49.7 Mn (INR 340 Cr) from Sequoia Capital India, with the participation of some existing investors — Cayman Islands-based Kingsway FCI Fund and Toronto-based KCK Global. The latest fundraise valued Cars24 at $250 Mn.

It must be noted that Sequoia Capital is an investor in CarDekho, which competes with Cars24.

Founded in 2015 by Fab-furnish co-founders Vikram Chopra and Mehul Agrawal, Cars24’s mission is to revolutionise the way used cars are sold in India.

Typically, it takes a car owner around 30-50 attempts to sell his/her car. The process involves listing the car on various websites, taking numerous calls, meeting multiple buyers, facing last-minute buyer backoffs, delayed payments, and an endless wait for the ownership transfer. Even after all this, there is no guarantee that one will get a fair price for his/her car.

Cars24 claims to create an efficient and reliable way for car owners to sell their used cars at the best price. All one has to do is book an appointment with any of the CARS24 branches, visit the branch and sell a car in a single visit. One can also get an estimated value of his car by using a simple price valuation tool on the CARS24 website.

Even after selling the car, getting complete payment and ensuring RC transfers are major pain points for every seller out there. Cars24 offer instant payment and transfer of documents, including free of cost transfer of the car’s registration certificate (RC) once the car is sold.

Cars24 currently has more than 50 branches across 12 major cities in India and is backed by a team of more than 700 employees.

According to media reports, Cars2 charges a commission of about 4-5% for each transaction. It has sold under one lakh cars since inception in 2015 and clocks 3,500-4,000 transactions per month, with an average price of about INR 2 -3 Lakh per vehicle sold.

Other major online used car marketplaces in India are CarTrade, Droom, Quikr, Olx, Mahindra First Choice Wheels, among others.

According to an IBEF report, the Indian auto industry, one of the largest in the world, accounts for 7.1% of the country’s GDP.

The report has pegged the Indian automobile market at $125 Bn. Out of this, $100 Bn is the estimated share of automobile sales and the remaining $25 Bn includes services. It is expected to grow at a rate of about 10% to a whopping $225 Bn by 2020.

[The development was reported by ET.]