India-based used vehicles platform Cars24 Services has raised $450 million in a new funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, DST Global and Falcon Edge, according to media report.
The Series F equity round of $340 million saw participation from China-based tech giant Tencent and existing investors Moore Strategic Ventures and Exor Seeds, India-based news portal livemint.com reported.
The funding round has nearly doubled Cars24’s valuation to $1.84 billion from $1 billion last November, according to the report. The fundraise included debt of $110 million from multiple financial institutions. The funding round also came after SoftBank Vision Fund led a $360 million Series C funding round investing into Singapore-based used car platform Carro in June.
Cars24 plans to use the fresh capital to deepen its presence in the United Arab Emirates and Australian markets, where it has made recent forays, and build its cars, bikes, and financing business in India while investing in technology, the company reportedly said.
“Traditionally, car selling or buying have been a tiresome process, and only 2 of 100 people own cars in India. However, over the last six years, we have been working continuously towards fulfilling the dreams of many Indians to own a car by transforming the customer’s journey- ‘the CARS24 way’ that is hassle-free, safe and transparent. With this investment, we will continue to penetrate into existing car, bikes and financing business in India while venturing into new overseas geographies this year,” Cars24 Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Vikram Chopra was quoted as saying.
Demand for used vehicles has been rising in India since the COVID-19 outbreak as fear of infections prompts more people to choose for personal mobility. This has also attracted investor attention towards this segment, according to livemint.com.
In July, online automobile marketplace Droom Technology said it was raising $200 million in a pre-IPO funding round at a valuation of $1.2 billion. In the same month, pre-owned automobile platform Spinny raised $108 million in a new funding round led by Tiger Global Management.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Singapore-based used car platform Carro has breached the $1 billion valuation mark after obtaining a $360 million Series C funding in June. This makes the company the seventh unicorn based or founded in the city-state and the first automotive marketplace unicorn in Southeast Asia.
The capital injection was also led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Other investors in the funding round are insurance firm MSIG, EV Growth, and a number of venture capital funds based in Indonesia.
Later in July, Malaysia-headquartered used car marketplace Carsome Group has become the country’s first technology unicorn as part of a share-swap deal that will see the startup take a stake in the Australia-listed automotive portal iCar Asia Ltd.