CARS24, India's leading e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles, announced today the closing of a $450 million round of funding including a $340M Series F equity round alongside $110 million debt from diversified financial institutions.
The Series F equity round was led by DST Global, Falcon Edge and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 along with participation from Tencent and existing investors Moore Strategic Ventures and Exor Seeds.
With the latest investment, CARS24 will expand its global presence as well as further build its cars, bikes and financing business in India, while continuing to invest in technology that delivers the best customer experience possible.
Vikram Chopra, Co-founder & CEO, CARS24 said, “Just last month, we celebrated six successful years of operations and we are incredibly excited to share that CARS24 has officially closed its largest round of funding to date. Traditionally, car selling or buying have been a tiresome process, and only 2 of 100 people own cars in India. However, over the last six years, we have been working continuously towards fulfilling the dreams of many Indians to own a car by transforming the customer's journey- 'the CARS24 way' that is hassle-free, safe and transparent. With this investment, we will continue to penetrate into existing car, bikes and financing business in India while venturing into new overseas geographies this year.”
This funding and vote of confidence from top global investors comes just months after CARS24’s expansion into the UAE and Australian markets. The company has already sold over 1000 cars in the UAE since the launch of its operations in April this year. CARS24 also officially announced its launch with a new campaign last week in Australia, it said in a press release.
Founded in 2015, CARS24 exists to transform the way consumers buy and sell cars by leveraging technology at every leg of the consumer journey to solve genuine pain points and deliver a seamless experience.
Rahul Mehta, Managing Partner at DST Global said, “CARS24 is transforming the way consumers buy and sell cars by providing a unique end-to-end digital shopping and transaction experience. They have emerged as the undisputed leader in the used car space in India and early traction in international markets is exceeding expectations.”
“We have studied used car platforms globally and are struck by the similarities we see between CARS24 and analogous businesses that have scaled successfully. CARS24 has cemented its first-mover advantage by building wide-ranging supply side moats, which in turn drive demand liquidity on the platform. In positioning itself as a buying and selling solution for consumers, CARS24 drives immense top-of-mind recall,” said Navroz D. Udwadia, Co-founder of Falcon Edge Capital.
Munish Varma, Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers said, “CARS24 is building a data-enabled tech platform that is organizing the fragmented used car market in India. We have been closely tracking its approach and efforts that have disrupted the used car retailing in India.”
Sumer Juneja, Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers added, “We believe CARS24 is enhancing the customer experience in the used car industry with its sharp focus on technology. We will continue to support this growth given our expertise in e-commerce businesses across markets”.
