Cars24, which offers a tech-enabled platform to customers to buy and sell pre-owned vehicles, has raised $200 million in its Series E round, taking the company’s valuation to over $1 billion. With this fund-raise, the startup joined the unicorn club, and claimed it is the only startup in the mobility sector to achieve a unicorn valuation.
The funding round has been led by billionaire Yuri Milner’s fund DST Global that also pumped in $122 million into edtech startup Byju’s earlier this year. Existing investors including Exor Seeds, Unbound and Moore Strategic Ventures also participated in the round.
The capital will be used to bolster Cars24’s new lines of business such as pre-owned two-wheelers, customer financing and servicing.
Vikram Chopra, co-founder and CEO, Cars 24, adding that the capital will also be used towards hiring, brand building and increasing market share from 4% currently to double digits.
While car manufacturing slowed down during the lockdowns, the pre-owned car market has continued to grow over the past year and is larger than the new car market now. Cars24 has benefitted from this trend. Currently, the company claims to be operating above pre-covid transactions with annual transactions exceeding 200,000 units and a 4X increase in website engagement.
Founded five years ago with an aim to streamline the buying and selling process of pre-owned cars by leveraging cutting edge technology, Cars24 has 230 branches across 100 cities. Despite the ongoing pandemic, it has been able to expand its presence from 155 outlets in 35 cities to 230 outlets till September.
Chopra said now the focus would be on the used two-wheelers category that was launched during the unlock phase with Cars24 Moto, as well as the financing business.
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