This includes a $100 million debt component that has been sourced from investors like the Commercial Bank of Dubai and IFM Investors in Australia.
Post the funding, Cars24’s valuation has jumped over 80% to $3.3 billion compared to its previous funding in September. At the time, the company had
closed a $450 million capital raise which was led by the likes of SoftBank Vision Fund, Alpha Wave Global and Yuri Milner’s DST Global. The Gurgaon-headquartered company was valued at $1.8 billion back then.
ET first
reported in its November 29 edition about the latest fundraise. We had said the company is in the final stages of discussions to mop up new funds at a significantly higher valuation.
Cars24’s other existing investors have also participated in this round, the company said.
Aggressive on global expansion
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Gajendra Jangid, cofounder and CMO, Cars24 said the firm has been expanding globally throughout this year and will continue on the strategy. “This is a $100 billion market opportunity in India and abroad, and a much larger game…The latest funding will help us make a dent not only in India but abroad too,” he said.
ET
reported last month that the company was looking to expand to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It recently entered Thailand and has been present in the UAE and Australia.
Jangid said, Cars24 will use the new capital for large-scale refurbishing labs across the country to improve the quality of cars before they are sold to customers. This is part of its plans to go deeper within India. The company is clocking an annualised revenue run-rate of close to $1 billion, based on last quarter performance, he said. This includes revenue from its lending vertical through its non-banking financing company (NBFC) unit which offers vehicle financing. Annualised revenue run rate is a projection of upcoming revenue based on what the company clocked during its best performing month.
ET reported last month, Cars24 is selling about 20,000 cars per month compared to 15,000 earlier in 2021. “We have grown 70% in calendar year 2021 compared to 2020. About 50% of our users opt for financing options,” Jangid added.
The company is sitting on a loan book of around Rs 1,500-1,600 crore, he said.
Founded in 2015 by Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal and Jangid, Cars24
became a unicorn last year in a $200 million funding round led by DST Global.
“ Today, we are witnessing greater acceptance amongst customers across the globe for our platform when purchasing their next car. As we continue to build the best infrastructure for the future with an end-to-end digital customer experience, we are confident that this will delight our customers with our high-touch industry experience,” Chopra said in a statement.
Navroz D. Udwadia, cofounder and partner, Alpha Wave Global, said he has backed Cars24 yet again as the company continues to cement its leadership positions across India, UAE, Australia and other international markets.
