Cars 24 Enters the Unicorn Club, Raises $200 million in Series E Funding
November 25, 2020
Cars24, India’s leading online marketplace for buying and selling used vehicles has joined the Unicorn club with a valuation of $1 billion. The Gurugram based startup has raised $200 million in a series E funding round led by DST global with contribution of existing investors including Exor Seeds, Moore Strategic Ventures and Unbound, making Cars24 the first Indian startup in the automotive sector to achieve the Unicorn status. With the new funds, the company plans to invest aggressively in new technology, product innovation, hire more talent and to scale new business verticals.
Founded in 2015 by Vikram Chopra, Ruchit Agarwal, Gajendra Jangid and Mehul Agrawal, Cars24 states to have created a safe space for users to buy and sell cars at affordable price. At present, the company claims to have 10,000 channel partners signed-up on its platform and intends to increase the network to over 2 times by next year. The company also aims to scale up its presence to over 300 Tier II, III and IV cities and towns by 2021.
Due to shift in consumer’s preference towards personal mobility, the company has observed a 4 times increase in website engagement. With the annual transactions exceeding over 2, 00,000 units, cars24 has claimed to have surpassed to pre-COVID levels.
In a statement Virkam chopra, Co-founder and CEO CARS24 said that “With this investment, we will continue to innovate our product and bolster our capabilities to provide the best experience for all parties — with sellers getting the best value for their car and buyers getting to choose from a wide assortment of automobiles.”
Cars24 has recently attempted to set foot into the two-wheelers category and within 6 months has transacted over 3000 vehicles. After obtaining NBFC license last year for its financing business, the company can also provide easy loan plans with 2 hour disbursements.
Cars 24 is the eighth Indian startup to join the Unicorn club after Unacademy, Pine Labs, Nykaa, FirstCry, Zerodha, Razorpay and Postman.
