Even amid the Covid pandemic, it’s raining unicorns in India.
Used car marketplace Cars24 has become the latest unicorn in India. Cars24 raised $200 million from Yuri Milner’s DST Global and existing investors including Exor Seeds, Moore Strategic Ventures and Unbound at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Cars24 is India’s first startup from the automobile space to reach the milestone.
“Traditionally, car selling or buying has been a tiresome process, however, over the last five years, we have strived to transform the customer’s journey- ‘the CARS24 way’ that is hassle-free, safe and transparent. 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,” said Cars24 founder and CEO Vikram Chopra. In 2019, Cars24’s revenues had doubled to Rs. 1687 crore, while its losses had quadrupled to Rs. 325 crore.
Cars24 was founded in 2015 by Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal and Vikram Chopra to help people buy and sell used cars. In an already-packed space with companies like Droom, CarDekho and CarTrade all vying for the same users, Cars24 had attempted to break the clutter with an aggressive offline sales strategy, and also signing on MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador. Last year, Cars24 had raised $100 million from existing investors including Sequoia India.
2020 might have seen upheavals for economies worldwide, but it has been a particularly fruitful year for startups in India. Just this year, Nykaa, Unacademy, Postman, RazorPay, FirstCry, Zerodha and PineLabs have all entered the unicorn club.