Droom raises $30 M in Series-D round led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Digital Garage
Droom, the transactional platform for automobiles, has announced that the company has raised its Series-D funding round of $30 million, led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation, member of the Toyota Group, and co-led by Digital Garage of Japan. They are joined by Ellison Investments, an Asia-based investment manager, and many existing investors and a number of prominent institutional investors and family offices from China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
In a press statement, Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Droom, said that Droom has changed how automobiles are bought and sold online by creating robust tech and AI-based services and tools fit for the 21st century. He added,
These tools focus on elements such as trust, transparency, pricing, and convenience. This partnership will play a major role in Droom’s journey ahead by helping us realise our growth potential, both in India and internationally. We are fortunate to have the support of Lightbox, Beenext and Beenos for believing in us very early on and supporting us relentlessly the last four years. On the backdrop of Droom’s upcoming international expansion, we are excited to partner with Ellison Investments for helping us expand our investor base in Asia.
As part of the deal, Toyota Tsusho Corporation signed an MOU with Droom for international expansion. The newly raised funds will be used to further strengthen Droom’s strength in the online automobiles marketplace segment in India, where it claims to be owning nearly a 70-percent market share. The fresh funding will be used to make its service tools more scalable and to expand its international presence. The tech-led platform will also invest heavily in further developing its machine learning and AI capabilities.
Through the latest funding and the ongoing support of investors, Droom aims to cement its position as India’s foremost online automobile marketplace. In the past three years, Droom has reportedly generated close to $700 million in gross revenue and $15 million in net revenue with a GMV of $3.5 billion. The company claims to be catering to over 250,000 auto dealers in more than 500 cities across India and 27.3 million monthly visitors online, with 7.4 million app downloads and 5.5 million via Facebook reach.
The company aims to double its gross merchandise value to $1.4 billion by end of 2018 and $3.5 billion by 2019, and also plans to go for an IPO by end of 2019.
A spokesperson from Toyota Tsusho Corporation said,
We were impressed that Droom has rapidly established its position as the largest online marketplace to buy and sell automobiles in India. We and Droom are sharing the same vision, which is bringing trust and transparency to the transactions of automobiles. We believe that this partnership contributes the establishment of highly transparent transaction of automotive the wholesome development of auto market of any developing countries, by combining Droom’s technologically advanced platform and our various automotive business experience of all over the world.
Droom is a Singapore-holding company with its subsidiary in India and the US. It has raised close to $95 million so far in six rounds of funding. Some of the prominent investors include Lightbox, Beenext, Beenos, Digital Garage, Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Integrated Assets Management. Droom is headquartered in Gurugram, India with a team size of more than 300.