Bengaluru: India’s Cars24 Services Pvt closed a Rs 3,000 crore fundraising round that valued the e-commerce platform at Rs 3,000 crore, nearly double its valuation in September.
The firm, founded in 2015 and operating internationally across Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, closed a $300 million Series G round led by Alpha Wave Capital alongside $100 million in debt, it said in a statement Monday. The move follows a $450 million round three months earlier led by SoftBank Group Corp.
Cars24 offers a platform for users to buy, sell and finance transactions of used vehicles, and it was among the businesses boosted by the pandemic’s impact on everyday habits. The company saw 50% growth over the past quarter and has aggressive expansion plans for 2022, Chief Executive Officer Vikram Chopra said in the announcement.
Indian tech startups have been the darlings of venture capital firms this year, with billions poured into the world’s second-most populous market as it gets more people online and using digital services. In April, half a dozen unicorns were minted within the span of four days, while intervals between fundraising rounds have contracted to weeks — as shown by Cars24. A Credit Suisse Group AG report earlier this year found there are about 100 unicorns in India with a combined market value of $240 billion, in sectors from e-commerce and fintech to education, logistics and food delivery.—Bloomberg
Also read: India’s used car website Cars24 raises $450 mn from SoftBank, Tencent, others