Ratan Tata Invests In Auto Portal CarDekho, Fourth Investment In Indian Digital Space

Ratan Tata, 73, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, the holding company of the $103 Bn-in-revenues Tata conglomerate has made his fourth investment in Indian digital space by investing in online auto portal CarDekho. For CarDekho, this round comes in just a few weeks after it had raised INR 307 Cr., in a round of funding led by Chinese funds Hillhouse Capitaland Tybourne Capital; the company was then valued at over $300 Mn.

Last year, Ratan Tata had invested in three companies including Snapdeal, UrbanLadder and Bluestone.

The amount Ratan Tata has invested in Jaipur-based GirnarSoft which owns and operates BikeDekho.com and PriceDekho.com as well could not be asserted at the moment.

Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder of CarDekho, who founded the company in 2007 with Anurag Jain said, “We are extremely excited to partner with him (Tata) considering his contribution to the growth and development of the Indian automobile industry. Following our humble beginning as a small venture in Jaipur, CarDekho has had a very exciting journey to reach this point of recognition and we now have a very aggressive plan for developing our business and boosting revenues in the future.”

The company will be looking to double its workforce by hiring 1000 more people. As per the company, it witnessed more than 10 million unique visitors on its site.

Earlier in last year, CarDekho had acquired Ibibo Group-owned Gaadi.com for an undisclosed amount which was said to be around $11 Mn deal.

Players such as Tiger Global and Warburg Pincus-backed CarTrade.com and Carwale.com, also operate in this space. CarDekho also competes with companies like Quikr and OLX, as the auto portal also deals in selling used cars.