Cars24 receives $100 mn in Series D funding

Cars24, Founded in 2015, the services which operates an eponymous marketplace for used cars, has raised Rs 714 crore in a Series D funding round from both existing and new investors.

New investors that participated in the round include London-based investment firm Unbound, which is headed by billionaire Sunil Bharti Mittal’s son Shravin, and New York-headquartered Moore Strategic Ventures and the existing investors including KCK Global, Fiat’s Agnelli family and Sequoia Capital India participated as well, Cars24 said in a statement.

Cars24 said it will use the fresh funding to strengthen its presence in new regions and adopt franchise models, as well as enhance its technological infrastructure and its consumer lending business. The company aims to be present in 75 cities in the country by the end of this year.

Vikram Chopra, Co-founder and chief executive officer said, the company was aiming to make itself the largest pre-owned automobile company in the country. “Any car owner can sell their car at a great price in less than an hour by driving down to the nearest Cars24 branch,” Chopra said.

Mittal said Unbound was confident in its investment in the company because of its ability to address the challenges faced by car owners.

Chopra and Mehul Agarwal, Cars24 says it currently has over 10,000 channel partners on its platform. It aims to increase this number to over 20,000 over the next two years. The startup claims it is currently achieving a volume of 1.5 lakh cars per annum and is targeting one million annual transactions by the end of 2021.

Its platform and services allow car owners to sell their cars, providing features such as instant payment and taking responsibility for all paperwork including registration certificate transfers. It sells the cars through its proprietary auction platform to businesses across the country. Cars24 employs over 3,000 people.