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Mumbai-based online marketplace for buying and selling secondhand cars Truebil has secured $3 Mn from Chinese VC firm Shunwei Capital. The funding was raised as a follow-on Series A round.
Shunwei Capital was founded in 2011 by Jun Lei and Tuck Lye KOH. It manages over $2 Bn across five funds. The VC firm focusses on mobile Internet and IoT and primarily invests in early- and growth-stage startups.
Tuck Lye Koh, CEO and Founding Partner, Shunwei Capital said, “The Indian startup landscape has exhibited exceptional growth across industries and this trend is likely to continue as the focus shifts on sustainability and unit economics. For our debut investment in this vibrant market, we were looking to join hands with a venture that has a robust business model, is catering to a real consumer need and is backed by a superior team and tech infrastructure. Truebil fits the bill perfectly and we are certain that with the freshly infused capital, the company will build on its expertise and widen the consumer base it reaches out to with its dynamic offerings.”
Truebil was founded in March 2015 by Suraj Kalwani, Himanshu Singhal, Rakesh Raman, Ravi Chirania, Ritesh Pandey, Shanu Vivek, and Shubh Bansal.
The startup plans to use the freshly raised funds to intensify its operations, invest in skill development and bolster the technological infrastructure of the company.
It recently rolled out its operations in Bengaluru and launched Truebil Direct – an offline platform for pre-owned cars based on the full stack inventory model. It also launched its B2C dealer digitisation platform ‘Truebil Privilege Partner.’
As per a company statement, Truebil is witnessing a 20% growth MoM with more than 3,000 verified cars registered to its portal. So far, the platform claims to have sold 2,500+ cars in Mumbai.
Last year in January, it raised $5 Mn (INR 35 Cr.) in Series A round of funding from Kalaari Capital, Inventus Capital, Kae Capital, and San Francisco-based Tekton Ventures.
Last week, Mumbai-based online automobile classifieds platform, CarTrade raised $55 Mn in a fresh round of funding led by Singapore-based Temasek, and a US-based family office. Other players in this segment include Carwale, MahindraFirstChoice, Carnation, Droom and Zigwheels.
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