Online auto classifieds portal CarDekho on Thursday announced that it has raised $110 million in a Series C funding round from Sequoia India, Hillhouse, CapitalG (formerly known as Google Capital), and Axis Bank.
This funding is in addition to the $75 million raised in previous rounds, it said in a statement.
The portal last raised about $15 million from Google Capital and Hillhouse Capital in March 2016. It was reportedly also talking to Chinese internet giant Tencent for funding in the latest round. Other investors in CarDekho include Tybourne Capital, HDFC Bank, Times Internet, Ratan Tata, Dentsu and Trifecta.
CarDekho, which competes with the likes of CarTrade and Quikr’s auto vertical, will use the funding proceeds to enhance focus on the used-car market segment and build capabilities in transaction services, including insurance and financing, the statement added.
“80 per cent of all people buying a car in India are researching on one of our websites. Our contribution to a person buying a new car has grown manifold and this will continue to be a bulwark for us. Our used cars engine has scaled up tremendously and has also enabled us to incubate allied businesses like Insurance and Finance business as they are one of the largest opportunities ahead of us. The opportunity lies in extending formal credit and insurance coverage to the new-to-formal economy population and will continue to be a focus area for us,” said Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder, CarDekho.
Founded in 2006 by siblings Anurag and Amit Jain, CarDekho claims to work directly with car and motorcycle manufacturers and 5,000 dealerships across India. In addition, it works in collaboration with more than 10 financial institutions across the country to facilitate used car financing.
CarDekho is owned by Girnarsoft, which also owns other portals such as Zigwheels, Gaadi.com, Pricedekho.com and Bikedekho.com. Headquartered in Jaipur, CarDekho has expanded internationally and launched OTO.com in Indonesia, which claims to have become the leading auto site in the country in less than two years of launch.
CarDekho has also been quite active on the acquisitions front. It acqui-hired used cars platform Carbiqi in November last year. As part of the deal, Carbiqi’s team was to join CarDekho’s used car vertical in Gurugram. Its parent Girnarsoft acquired PowerDrift, an automotive channel on YouTube, in August.
Its competitor, CarTrade, last secured $55 million in its Series G round of funding led by Singapore-based investor Temasek in February 2017. Other investors in CarTrade include Warburg Pincus, JP Morgan and March Capital.
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