CarDekho raises Series C funding of $110 M from Axis Bank, existing investors

CarDekho claims to have monthly traffic of 73 million visitors, with 39 million monthly unique visitors.

Automobile classified platform CarDekho has raised Series C funding of $110 million from Sequoia India, Hillhouse, CapitalG (Alphabet growth investment arm) and Axis Bank. The company will use the fresh funds to enhance focus on the used-car segment of the market and build a strong foundation in transaction services, including insurance and financing, the company said in its statement.

“Our contribution to a person buying a new car has grown manifold and this will continue to be a bulwark for us. Our Used Cars engine has scaled up tremendously and has also enabled us to incubate allied businesses like Insurance and Finance business as they are one of the largest opportunities ahead of us. The opportunity lies in extending formal credit and insurance coverage to the new-to-formal economy population and will continue to be a focus area for us,” said Amit Jain, CEO and Co-founder, CarDekho.

In 2017, CarDekho's parent Girnarsoft had received a licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to launch an auto insurance vertical. CarDekho is currently working with eight car and motorcycle manufacturers, along with 5,000 dealerships across India. In addition, it works in collaboration with more than 10 financial institutions across the country to facilitate used car financing and provide a seamless experience for both buyers and sellers.

This funding is in addition to the $75 million raised in its previous rounds. In July 2018, it had bagged debt funding of $3.6 million from Trifecta Venture Debt Fund-1. Four months prior, it had raised Rs 16 crore of equity funding from Sequoia Capital in an internal round of financing. The previous fundings are backed by investors like Hillhouse Capital, Tybourne Capital, and Sequoia Capital, Ratan Tata, and HDFC Bank in the first half of 2015.

CarDekho is the flagship site of Jaipur-based GirnarSoft, along with its other group sites like ZigWheels, Gaadi, PowerDrift and BikdeDekho.

CarDekho claims to have monthly traffic of 73 million visitors, with 39 million monthly unique visitors. In August 2018, the company had acquired PowerDrift Studios Private Limited, popularly known as PowerDrift, a YouTube channel for automotive content. On its channel, the company now claims to have 1.9 million subscribers till date.

GirnarSoft has a presence in international markets under the brand names of ZigWheels and OTO,

covering diverse countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

CarDekho competes with players like NDTV Auto, CarTrade, Cars24, OLX, Quikr's auto vertical, and Droom.