Used-car marketplace Droom vrooms forward, closes Series B funding led by Singaporean and Japanese companies

Droom, online marketplace for new and second-hand automobiles,closed their Series B round of funding led by BEENEXT from Singapore and Digital Garage from Japan. Some of the existing investors, like Lightbox and BEENOS, also participated in the current round. While the amount of funding is undisclosed, according to YourStory sources it’s in the range of $25‑28 million.

The proceeds will be used for strengthening their position in the online market for automobiles in India as well as taking on international markets, expanding their sales team, adding more business lines, and boosting their technology platform with a focus on creating a richer consumer experience. With a presence in 142 cities, Gurgaon-based Droom has the largest reach in the hyper-local category in India.

Founded in April 2014 in Silicon Valley, Droom had raised $16 million in Series A funding last July from Lightbox Venture and Japanese internet firm BEENOS. Droom is the brainchild of Sandeep Aggarwal, who earlier co-founded horizontal marketplace ShopClues. “We have been witnessing tremendous growth over the past 16 months in terms of adoption by sellers, number of categories and listings, geographical presence in 142 cities across in India, and GMV transactions. We are very delighted that BEENEXT and Digital Garage have liked Droom journey so far and the future potential and decided to lead the round. We are now looking at expanding to Indonesia, followed by other countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand," Sandeep informs YourStory.

Speaking on the occasion, Teruhide Sato, Founder and Managing Partner of BEENEXT, said, “Droom has swiftly established its leadership position as the premium digital marketplace to buy and sell automobiles in India. Sandeep is an exceptional founder and his vision, grip on marketplaces and ability to drive innovations are second to none. We supported him and Droom fairly early on and have seen tremendous growth and disruption Droom has brought to the market.”

Kaoru Hayashi, President and Group CEO of Digital Garage, also stated that Droom’s impressive performance in a short span fuelled their decision to back the company. “What Sandeep and the entire team at Droom have been able to do in such a short span of time is extremely impressive and is the main reason why we have handpicked Droom for investment.”

Droom claims to have over 2.47 million app downloads, 47,000 B2C sellers, 24,000 products, over 57,000 listings, and Rs 2,326 crore in listed GMV. An Owler listing also states that the company clocked Rs 36 crores in revenue, last December.

Besides job and real estate, automobile is touted as a big driver of overall classifieds in India. However, none of the established players has made a significant dent so far. The automobile market in India is worth $125 billion, making it the third largest in the world with a demand for used vehicles spanning two wheelers to luxury cars.

Over the past 18 months, several used car marketplaces like Truebil and Spinny have made their debuts in the space, however, none of them has been able to attract heavy VC funding. Truebil secured $5 million in Series A funding from Kalaari and others in January this year. Droom appears to have an upper hand on these players as far as financial muscle is concerned.

The dominant players are Cartrade and Cardekho. While hyper-funded Cartrade recently closed a massive $145 million round in February and acquired Carwale in a $120 million deal, another leader, CarDekho usurped Zigwheels and Gaadi.com, and raised $50 million in Series B last January, and another round of $15 million from Google Capital this February.

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