Spinny Bags $30 Mn From WestBridge, Closes Round At $170 Mn

Used-car marketplace unicorn Spinny has raised $30 Mn (around INR 256 Cr) from WestBridge Capital to close its Series F funding round at $170 Mn. Sources told Inc42 that the funding round was a mix of primary and secondary deals. 

Inc42 is yet to an official communication on the details of the round from Spinny. Entrackr reported the development first. 

In the first tranche of the round, the unicorn raised $131 Mn led by US-based Accel Leaders Fund with participation from Nandan Nilekani’s Fundamentum in April. Back then, the startup’s post money valuation stood between $1.7 -1.8 Bn.

This is a flat valuation compared to its previous $1.8 Bn valuation in December 2021, when the startup joined the unicorn club after raising $283 Mn in a funding round led by Abu Dhabi-based ADQ, Tiger Global and Avenir Growth.

At the time of Series F’s first leg in April, an ET report said that the proceeds would be deployed to expand Spinny’s non-banking financial arm. 

Founded in 2015 by Neeraj Singh, Mohit Gupta and Ramanshu Mahaur, Spinny is a used-car retailing platform that has over 36 car hubs and is operational in 22 Indian cities, including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.

Spinny has raised over $664.20 Mn till date and counts Tiger Global, General Catalysts, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Accel Partners, and Avenir Growth Capital among others as its investors. 

The startup competes against the likes of Cars24, CarTrade, and Droom.

On the financial front, Spinny trimmed its net loss by 28% to INR 590 Cr in the financial year ending March 2024 (FY24) from INR 819.8 Cr reported in the previous fiscal year. 

The startup’s revenue from operations rose 14.2% to INR 3,725 Cr in FY24 from INR 3,259.7 Cr in the previous fiscal year.  Spinny reported a total income of INR 3,821 Cr against the INR 3,380.7 Cr reported last year. 

Inside The Used Car Marketplace Ecosystem

While Gurugram-based Spinny has forayed into the direct lending space to explore new revenue streams, its industry peer CARS24 is on expansion spree through acquisition and multiple initiatives. 

In April, CARS24 acquired homegrown automotive forum Team-BHP that provides car-related content, including reviews of newly launched cars, industry analysis, dealership & finance company reviews. 

Another used car marketplace Droom is looking to file the draft papers for an INR 1,000 Cr initial public offering (IPO) this year, sources told Inc42. The IPO offer will comprise a fresh issue as well as an offer for sale, with the fresh issue likely to be over 50% of the offer. 

Droom is eyeing a valuation of $1.2 Bn to $1.5 Bn for the IPO and has already finalised two middle market banks for the public issue. 

Besides, auto-classifieds platform CarTrade’s consolidated profit after tax (PAT) zoomed 85% to INR 46.1 Cr in the March quarter of the fiscal year 2024-25 (Q4 FY25) from INR 24.9 Cr in the year-ago quarter on the back of growth in its top line and improvement in its EBITDA margin.