Automobiles – Dutch Uncles

Electrify Your Future, Electric Vehicle Innovation Challenge

Anju Nambiar — Tue, 10 Aug 2021 10:35:08 +0000

Electric vehicles are the future of sustainability and an answer to the rising fuel prices in the country. The government is working hard to promote entrepreneurship in this segment. Ola’s newly launching EV is part of the Electric Vehicle Policy 2021. The EVangelise Challenge is also a part of these efforts.

What is the EVangelise Challenge?

EVangelise is an Electric Vehicle Innovation Challenge organised by iCreate (International Centre for Technology and Entrepreneurship, India’s leading innovation-based start-up incubator) that’s occurring in conjunction with ‘Start-up India’. This challenge is designed for the Electric Vehicle Industry and is meant to encourage innovations in the two and three-wheeler segment in India. It is an international event that will unite innovators, the EV industry, institutions and government bodies.

Everything you need to know about EVangelise

Dates and deadlines

This is an annual event spanning a duration of 7 months. Application submissions were opened on the 17th of July and the deadline for submission is the 15th of January, 2022. The winners will be announced next year on the 22nd of February 2022.

Application process

Start-ups wanting to apply for participation need to visit the official ‘EVangelise’ website and submit your application by filling out a simple form containing details about your start-up along with contact information.

Eligibility criteria

Entrepreneurs who are offering breakthrough innovations for the EV Industry and addressing key problem statements in the industry are invited to participate in the challenge. College students, independent innovators, and start-ups are eligible for the event. Key stakeholders from the Automotive industry including Investors, Mentors, Corporates and start-ups in the Ideation, Validation, Early Traction, and Scaling stages fulfil the eligibility criteria.

Benefits for participants and winners

A number of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives are up for grabs for participants and winners. Fiscal incentives include cash prizes for the top finalists in three key start-up stages (Idea, Design, and the Build stage). Non fiscal incentives include organising Bootcamps, Masterclasses, and Tech Mentoring by iCreate and Industry experts.

Participants that endure to the final stage of the event get the opportunity to participate in an International EV race at Kevadia, Guajarat in a landmark setting before the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue. Finalists also get to pitch their start-ups to an exclusive jury, and get access to incubation support, market connections, and mentorship. Finalists also get to showcase their innovations at the EV Expo.

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The deadline for application submission is the 15th of January, 2022. The winners will be announced next year on the 22nd of February 2022.

What’s in it for me?

Through the event, Start-up India in partnership with iCreate wants to recognise the next-gen innovators in EV while promoting technology tourism in the country. Assured cash prizes for winners amount to INR 88.5 lakh. The winners also stand to gain incubation support worth INR 50 lakhs. This challenge is aimed at bringing together India’s leading EV companies and sub-component manufacturers to facilitate partnerships and collaborations that will boost the industry.

iCreate is a part of the Gujarat State Government that promotes growth and entrepreneurial capital and has extended support to multiple EV projects. Start-up India is a great platform from where they can improve awareness about the event and also a forum that’s working for a common cause. This event is one of many efforts by the government to improve adoption of sophisticated, energy-efficient, and sustainable transportation solutions for the Indian market.

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Why is Krishnagiri Ola’s Choice to Build the Largest Two-Wheeler Mega-Factory in the World

Anju Nambiar — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 03:35:13 +0000

Electric 2 and 3 wheelers are the next revolution in sustainable transport. These are not new concepts and have been around for a while. They are slowly receiving more spotlight as their performance is now matching that of fuel vehicles. State Governments are encouraging Electric Vehicle manufacture with the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacture of Hybrid and EV) II scheme. Ola, the ride-hailing company has stepped into the EV business with their state-of-the-art production facility at Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu.

Why Krishnagiri?

The Government of Tamil Nadu has already signed MoUs (Memorandums of Understanding) with several EV (Electric Vehicle) makers, and Ola is one of many. Ola has signed this MoU valued at INR 2400 Cr prior to the land acquisition at Krishnagiri. Spanning a total of 500 acres in area, the location was just empty rock land for the longest time before becoming Ola’s base for its flagship project. The factory site is located near Krishnagiri in Tamilnadu. Tamil Nadu is one of the fastest growing states with a conducive policy environment for cutting-edge technology development including manufacture of EVs.

Tamil Nadu Electric Vehicle Policy 2019

Tamil Nadu fosters an automotive ecosystem. 35% of India’s overall auto components production occurs in the state of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu’s electric vehicle policy 2019 offers incentives for vehicle makers and suppliers investing INR 50 Cr. The state is targeting an investment of INR 50,000 Cr in EV manufacture.

Incentives for EV Makers

EV makers can enjoy full reimbursement of state GST on vehicle sales. They will also receive capital subsidy, 100% electricity tax exemption, and 15-50% subsidy on land cost.

About the Project

Ola’s electric scooter factory project titled ‘Ola Future Factory’ will be commencing its first phase of operations. With 10 M man hours allocated for the factory construction, it will have an annual installed capacity of 10 M electric scooters. The mega two-wheeler factory is also the world’s largest 2W factory.

5000 Robots

This factory is set to be India’s most-automated plant which will have about 5000 operational robots alongside automated guided vehicles in full-capacity.

Focus on Sustainability

Ola’s electric vehicle arm will contribute to India’s initiatives towards green mobility. They will supply their EV to the CESL (Convergence Energy Services Ltd) for this cause. Ola’s scooters will be eco-friendly and will be an answer to rising petrol and diesel prices in the country. The Future Factory will employ sustainable energy practices for production and will reduce its overall carbon footprint when they step up on production capacity. The factory will use solar and renewable energy for manufacturing and rely on carbon-negative operations.

100 acres of Forest Cover

The entire factory will be high on sustainability with 100 acres of forest cover around it and 2 acres of forest cover within the factory.

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The Government of Tamil Nadu has already signed MoUs (Memorandums of Understanding) with several EV (Electric Vehicle) makers, and Ola is one of many.

What’s in it for me?

There is tough competition in the EV manufacturing sector and even Ola will not be spared from the heat. But Ola is aggressively expanding in the space since the EV sector in India is growing rapidly although currently its still at a fledgling stage. The demand for EV vehicles is strong especially in India which is the world’s largest two-wheeler market. Ola has realised the potential at the right time and quickly moved into automobile manufacture as a separate wing.

The recent amendments to the FAME II electric vehicle policy will be beneficial for EV start-ups in the country. As per the amendments, electric two wheelers can benefit from a demand incentive of INR 15000 per kWh. Also, there is a 40% cap on incentives on the total cost of the vehicle. Battery powered two-wheeler start-ups who comply with the eligibility criteria of 80 km minimum range and a top speed of 40 km/h can avail subsidy under the FAME II scheme.

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Pandemic the Game Changer, Cars24 to Double Its Valuation

Anju Nambiar — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 05:34:04 +0000

Cars24 is a Gurgaon based start-up which recently joined the unicorn league. Cars24 is the biggest online marketplace in India for used vehicles.

Spike in Website Traffic with the onset of the pandemic

Cars24 reported a four-fold increase in their website traffic. It is astonishing that this increase began precisely with the start of the pandemic which clearly shows the increased demand for used vehicles during the pandemic.

Upcoming funding deal valued at $250 M

The company is working out a funding deal valued at $250 M backed by investors including DST Global. If successful, this deal could double Cars24’s site value between $1.6 M to $2B.

Renewed interest towards pre-owned cars during the pandemic

The demand for used vehicles has spiked in India since people are afraid to take public transport. The second-hand vehicle market exploded during the pandemic. Since the spending thresholds have reduced for people from all walks of life, investing in a brand-new car has taken a backseat. There is also no concern regarding the status symbol which a pre-owned car might bring to the table.

Business model of Cars24

Cars24 is aimed at easing the process of the used car, pre-owned motorcycles and scooters’ trade in India. Cars24’s business model is to price vehicles based on AI algorithms. The insights from the data will match the least troublesome car with its soon to be owner.

Cars24 have their own reconditioning facilities where vehicles to be listed for sale will be refurbished. The refurbished vehicles can be returned within 7 days without the need to furnish a reason for the same. Each vehicle sold through Cars24 will enjoy a six-month long warranty period. The business model of Cars24 also includes customised financial services and vehicle lending products.

Global expansion to new markets

The start-up is actively exploring new markets and has already set up base in Australia and the United Arab Emirates. They also have plans to stretch their presence in more middle eastern and southeast Asian markets.

For 2021, the company has already set aside funds worth INR 738 Cr ($98 M) for expansion of its international operations. Through their global expansion, they want to cater to new and unique consumers across the world.

Cars24 was particularly interested in the Australian market since the consumer base here loves cars and had never experienced a business model quite like Cars24 which made it simple to trade in pre-owned refurbished vehicles.

Future and Forecasting

Currently, Cars24 is operating 20 car studios in more than 10 locations. About 400 cars are being catalogued by the company each day. They have an assortment of more than 10,000 cars.

For the year 2021, they have planned to establish 7 refurbishment workshops spanning an area of 50 acres in total. They also want to hit targets of 20,000 refurbished cars monthly.

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According to digital marketing agency AdLift, India's influencer market is pegged at $75-150 million a year, as compared to the global market of $1.75 billion.

What’s in it for me?

Since its inception, Cars24 has been a seller focused platform for used cars. But since then, they tactfully changed their stance from being a seller-focused to being a buyer-focused firm. They offered a fair incentive for customers who wanted to buy used automobiles from them based on a purely online experience. The incentive of a 7 day no-questions-asked return policy and the 6-month warranty sealed the deal for Cars24.

While making the transition to a buyer-focused used car dealership, Cars24 had to shoulder the responsibility of logistics, in-house refurbishing via their own workshops.

Their focus on doing quality checks of the vehicle through a 140-point inspection before sales has helped them find favour with customers. Cars24’s venture into the financing business in 2019 proved to be profitable to them since they reported earnings of INR 10 Cr ($1.3 M) purely from finance products and loan interest.

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Zetwerk, Connecting Global Companies with Manufacturing Partners in India

Shalmoli Sarkar — Fri, 25 Jun 2021 05:45:03 +0000

Amrit Acharya, one of the founders of Zetwerk, during his stint with ITC, was shouldered with the task of building a factory that required him to deal with 100-200 suppliers at different times. Amrit’s task to handle multiple suppliers turned out to be a daunting one with excel sheets.

It was the eureka moment when he realised that there was no software available to automate and organise a list of suppliers to provide a consolidated view and aggregate the database. So, a problem seeded the birth of Zetwerk.

How Does Zetwerk Connect Global Companies with Manufacturers?

Zetwerk is a Bangalore-based startup founded in 2018 by four friends – Amrit Acharya, Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Rahul Sharma, and Vishal Chaudhary – from IIT Madras. Armoured with experience of working in supply and demand verticals, startups and family businesses, these four friends decided to create software that could help organise supplier databases for large manufacturers.

Zetwerk, through its platform, fulfills the machinery and tools requirement of EPC (engineering procurement construction) and OEM (original equipment manufacturers) customers with small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. Its software is used by global engineering companies to discover a pool of niche manufacturers.

To make them discoverable, it indexes these small and medium-sized manufacturers to understand the products they have built before. This aids the bigger EPCs and OEMs to discover them and place orders. From the manufacturers’ side, Zetwerk’s software acts as a price bidding engine where the input is an AutoCAD file which is made available to the network of machine parts manufacturers who can then estimate the price.

Once a company has placed an order, Zetwerk provides it with real-time tracking to monitor the progress right from manufacturing to its delivery. Based on the requirement and specifications, it sells custom-made products to serve customers belonging to verticals of fabrication, machining, casting and forging. There are no ready stocks of products available. Machine parts such as cranes, doors, chassis of different machines and ladders are manufactured by connecting with manufacturers and workshops.

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Zetwerk, through its platform, fulfills the machinery and tools requirement of EPC and OEM customers with small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises.

Trends in Supply Chain

Demand for Automobiles in Asia

Rising incomes and rapid urbanisation are increasing vehicle demand in Asian countries. The booming demand for automobiles in Asia will catalyse the demand for more automobile parts and machinery to serve the markets which will increase the demand on the supply chain.

Tech enablement

The pandemic has disrupted the supply chains that have caused delays from the suppliers’ side for OEMs. To insulate from losses, OPCs and OEMs, through advanced supply chain automation, can discern repetitive patterns in supplier behaviour through tracking of key performance indicators like cost, quality and on-time delivery which will enable them to work with a better sense of anticipation.

Localisation

Major India’s domestic and foreign OEMs across vehicle segments are manufacturing automobiles with the spare parts and tools that are made in India. Top-selling models in vehicle segments such as hatchbacks, SUVs, premium sedans, commercial vehicles – have achieved 85 percent or higher localization.

Localisation is burgeoning in two-wheelers verticals where companies are developing bikes that are 100 percent indigenous. Tractors are also manufactured with nearly 100 percent localization.

What Other Supply Chain Startups can Learn from Zetwerk?

Within a short span of 3 years, Zetwerk began receiving monthly orders worth Rs 10 crores. Here’s what startups can learn:

Know your Army Well

Supply chain startups, before onboarding suppliers, should collect adequate data points. Zetwerk collected 200-250 data points based on parameters like capacity, machinery, capability, quality, experience and vintage.

The data collection of suppliers proved beneficial as now they knew the type of B2B companies to attract whether belonging to heavy machinery or automotive vertical.

Delegate the large orders

Zetwerk soon faced a hurdle where suppliers were unable to fulfill orders on time, due to issues arising in capacity/capability, finance, or logistics.

To avoid such mishaps, Zetwerk decided to adopt parallel manufacturing when it received a large order. The large order is delegated to multiple suppliers on the platforms by which they could achieve speed in manufacturing and fulfill orders on time.

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How Spinny Pivoted to Take on Industry Mammoths in the Used-Car Market

Varsha Singh — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 02:35:03 +0000

People have been looking for a suitable platform to purchase a used car for a long time. Earlier people used to buy second-hand cars by directly contacting the owner. This was indeed a cumbersome process, as coming in direct contact with the seller was quite a difficult task and people had to get involved in the bargaining process. The procedure of buying a used car is laborious and overly complicated. Independent sellers offer a wide range of rates and services to entice people to buy cars of dubious quality. Choosing from a pool of mint and lemon autos, for example, has a high probability of bad selection for a layperson. That’s where Spinny comes in. Nowadays, with the boom of e-commerce and e-retail platforms, we have certain platforms like Spinny which are making the buying and selling of a car much more convenient. Spinny is a new age platform that enables trustworthy and hassle-free transactions in the used-car market.

Spinny’s Origin Story: Getting into the Market

Having a car is a dream for every Indian family but due to financial restrictions, many people go for buying used cars. In June 2015, Niraj Singh, Ramanshu Mahaur, Ganesh Pawar, and Mohit Gupta embarked on a mission to develop Spinny in order to sift out the quintessential problems of difficulty and scepticism and break down the arduous process into a one-click solution. Spinny is an innovative way to purchase and sell used cars on the internet as well as bring lucidity and accountability to the used automobile market. Removing superfluous expenses, lowering paperwork, and terminating all inconveniences replaces the time-consuming process of buying and selling cars. The startup started in Gurugram and is currently operating in six cities including Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, and Mumbai. Niraj Singh – an IIT graduate and the current CEO – invested $500,000 from his own fund. Today many investors have invested in the company and have made a profit of around Rs. 418 crores. Niraj recognised the need to provide a quality experience for individuals buying used automobiles and planned to construct a simple and clear platform to gather information and purchase a car.

The asymmetry of information available in the process of used car purchases has been a key roadblock.The used car market is highly unstructured with independent dealers and curbsiders dominating a large chunk of the market. Only 3-4 per cent of buyers are satisfied after buying used cars. Spinny is all about providing openness and efficiency to the used automobile purchasing and selling experience. According to the founders, consumers can use the platform to hunt for not just different varieties of cars, but also other value-added services. This covers services such as automotive inspections, test drives, registration transfers, and giving auto warranties to customers, among others.

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Spinny is a new-age reseller platform that specialised in facilitating the sale and purchase of used cars with their USP being, complete transparency.

How is Spinny different from all other companies?

There are several business models in the used car industry. There are auction-based and classified companies like Cars24, CarDekho, OLX, and Quikr; franchises and companies like Mahindra First Choice and True Value. Then there is Droom, an online marketplace to buy and sell used vehicles. All these companies are seller-based platforms that focus mainly on selling cars. Spinny on the other hand is a buyer-based platform that focuses on buying good quality used cars and then selling them at a reasonable price.

Not only is it one of few companies to continue with its money return policy during the time of COVID, but also one of the first companies to adopt a full contactless dealing management and providing home deliveries. The Spinny Star Rating engine employs a unique algorithm to calculate a used car’s rating based on inspection data. The goal of this grade is to give you a fast idea of the vehicle’s genuine condition. Every car listed on Spinny has been certified by our in-house vehicle professionals and is covered by a one-year warranty that includes the engine, transmission, electrical systems, and suspensions. The cost of the warranty is included in the listing price of automobiles with the Spinny Assured tag, but if you want to include the warranty in your automobile purchase, you must pay for it separately. They initiated a set of features to make buying a car an entirely hands-off experience. To solve the liquidity shortage that many people are experiencing during these uncertain times, making owning a car more realistic and cost-effective than renting or subscribing to one. One of the distinguishing features between Spinny and other platforms is Spinny360.

Thanks to Spinny360, customers now can see the interior and exterior of any vehicle in the inventory online exactly as they are in person. This will finally assist them in making a clear selection and will also provide them with a clear picture of the vehicle’s condition. The feature uses a state-of-the-art studio with high-definition cameras that capture detailed images of the car. In addition to all of these, It seems like with Spinny coming into the market, one could observe that there is more popularity of buying used cars as compared to new ones and according to sources, on each new car, three used cars are getting sold.

Rise of Spinny during COVID

Previously, people would only buy new cars to increase their economic value, but as time has passed, this has changed. There is a shift towards buying used cars. Around 65 per cent of India’s population is under 35 years and for young buyers, buying a second-hand car is a much more sensible decision to be prepared for uncertainties in the future. Spinny saw a 20 per cent increase in sales over the previous year, owing to the fact that cars are now seen as a need rather than a lifestyle choice. Even with the lockdown in place, Spinny had sold over 6000 cars by October. Spinny had seen a 20 per cent rise in demand in 2019 compared to the previous year, with the majority of the credit going to its young customer base. Spinny targeted the young buyers to give them a way to have good quality used cars and today around 80 per cent of their buyers are under the age of 35. The cultural stigma which is there regarding used cars is somehow coming to its end and that helped them in the growth during the festive season as well. Even during the time of COVID when we suffered an economic breakdown, Spinny sold over 5,000 used cars last year with the total number clocking over 9,100 units. Despite liquidity concerns, they sold a total of 9,100+ cars in 2020, owing to an increased network and more clients wanting safe personal transportation. Regardless of the lockdown, they sold almost 2,700 automobiles between July and August. They reached 5,000 automobiles in 2019 and were able to meet their pre-covid goal for 2020.

Shifting of the working model

Before Spinny, there were already many companies that were providing used cars but to be in the market, one needs to be unique and creative. Earlier, Spinny used to follow a simple procedure of selling cars where they check the quality of the car then connect the buyer and the seller. This procedure had some trust issues, as later, the buyer could pull off the deal or the seller. It was very necessary to have some changes in the structure so they opted for a new model for the dealings.Now, the seller first contacts Spinny and they offer a fair price for the car, and if the seller agrees, the car will go through a quality test of around 200 factors before getting on board on their app and all the paperwork is done before taking custody of the car. Then after servicing, polishing, and waxing of the car, the car is put on board for selling with all the basic details of the quality of the car. Spinny’s idea is to make buying a used car as simple as buying a new car. Spinny tries to give each and every accurate detail of the car to give the buyer a clear idea before buying. They also provide at which hub the car is parked so that the buyer can directly go to the hub to check out the car. But the deal is not over after buying a car, Spinny tries their best to maintain a good relationship with the customers even after the deal as former customers could refer many other people to try buying a car from Spinny. In order to give an even better experience than a brand new car, Spinny gives a full tank of fuel to all their customers. The main issue which one usually has while buying a second-hand car is the quality of the car and its value for money. The main focus of Spinny is to give a quality car and that is why it does not negotiate the price with the buyer or the seller.

The Money behind the Machine

The five-year-old India startup has concluded its Series C funding round, receiving $65 million from General Catalyst and others in Silicon Valley for a post-money valuation of $350 million. The new round was led by General Catalyst of Silicon Valley, with participation from Feroz Dewan’s Arena Holdings, Think Investments, and current investors Fundamentum Partnership (supported by tech veterans Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal) and Elevation Capital. The round, which brings Spinny’s to-date raise to more than $120 million, valued the startup at about $350 million, up from about $150 million a year ago. Spinny changed its business strategy from customer-to-customer to full-stack, where it buys, refurbishes, and sells used cars. Every month, the platform sells around 1,500 cars and continues to expand at a consistent rate of 15-16 per cent month after month. Spinny, with its 900 people in nine places, with ambitions to expand to six more by 2021. It now sells used cars in the Rs 4-8 lakh range, but it intends to expand its offers to include both lower and higher-value vehicles. The extra funds will be used to improve customer experience, grow into new markets, increase technology and product capabilities, establish new business categories, and establish cross-functional teams.

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Being successful as a brand in the used car market is a tough business as you are essentially working with run-down products. Therefore, Spinny makes sure all cars go through thorough checking before being sold.

What Does the Future Hold for Spinny?

Right now, Spinny is working in a few cities like Noida, Delhi (two hubs), Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai. Their plan is to expand their business to Kolkata and Ahmedabad soon. After their great sale in 2020, the momentum and confidence are obviously high and they would like to keep the momentum going. According to the study, the used car market is set to go around 7.2 million units by 2022 as now people are opting to buy more used cars. But to maintain the reputation and the legacy, Spinny needs to maintain trust and transparency with their customers. With so much increase in sales last year, Spinny is no longer a young company and has to compete with established brands like Cars24, CarDekho, etc. Spinny has several plans in the works for the future. The first goal is to expand into as many places as possible by the end of 2021, with the team focusing on providing more high-quality cars.

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How CarDekho Moved From a Lead Generation to Full-Fledged Booking Platform

Arunima Sharma — Sun, 13 Jun 2021 10:35:05 +0000

Ever since cars went from luxury to necessity, people have been hit by a conundrum of all the ‘which’ questions. Which car to buy, which feature to prioritise, which company to go for, which dealer to choose from and so on. The situation becomes even more challenging when it is coupled with the term ‘pre-owned’, both for buying and selling. Overall, it’s a tough ride.

In 2008, a brother duo – Anurag and Amit Jain – decided to bridge this gap with the inception of CarDekho – a web portal that deals with anything and everything related to automobiles, including buying, selling, reviewing and financing. However, it wasn’t a cakewalk for the two IIT graduates, who placed their passion over the shared aversion of getting into the family business of jewellery.

After a few ‘speed bumps’ and a lot of hard work, they managed to turn CarDekho into one of the biggest brand names in the automotive e-commerce business, with a valuation of over $643 Million.

Failure, Inspiration and Investment

The journey of entrepreneurship for the Jain brothers had commenced in 2006 after they left their respective jobs at TCL and Trilogy as they learned about their father’s illness. The idea was to join the family’s jewellery business, however, they decided to choose a different path and start something of their own. Varied ideas, starting from taking the jewellery business online to an astrology portal, were curated, brainstormed and quashed. After a series of thoughts, the duo stumbled upon the idea of doing what they were best at – software services/IT – and launched GirnarSoft, an IT outsourcing company.

Soon the bedroom was turned into the office and the brothers commenced operations with big hopes. After thousands of emails and calls, the duo realised that the results were not worth the efforts as they were unable to touch base with big clients and get the expected results.

They decided to start small. Their first project fetched them Rs 50,000, which was much less than what they had hoped for. However, as challenging as it can be to be patient, it is one of the most important traits for any start-up. Besides, hard work never goes in vain. Having said that, do not misinterpret between patience and rest. Don’t take rest and fool yourself by saying that I am patient. This is exactly what the brothers did.

Amidst the frustration of not reaping expected results, a chain of references had started to build up for the start-up, bringing in new projects and clients. Within a year, the company had 40 employees and enough capital to be reinvested.

However, instead of putting their entire money back into the business, the duo decided to place their bet on a new idea, which came in from the duo’s shared interest and a visit to an international expo.

Digitisation was the key. The aim was to make buying and selling of an automobile a hassle free process besides streamlining the unscathed market.

While thinking about the new venture, what convinced the brother duo was their visit to the International Auto Expo. The sheer experience of reviewing, comparing or just having a look at the options available at one place hit them up with the idea of having the same online.

The money made out of the IT business was reinvested in launching Cardekho in 2008, with GirnarSoft as the parent company.

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“Cardekho has quickly moved up as one of the premier platforms for automotive e-commerce in India thanks to the company utilising digitisation so well.”

Going beyond a Web Portal

A few years later, CarDekho found itself surrounded by competition. It was being challenged by companies like CarTrade, Droom Technology, CarWale and many more. However, to remain at the top of its game, since the very beginning, the company had made innovation in its bible.

CarDekho aspires to give its user an immersive car experience before it visits the dealer showroom. It has launched a variety of features, including the ‘Feel The Car’ tool that gives 360-degree interior/exterior views with sounds of the car and explanations of features with videos; search and comparison by make, model, price, features; and live offers and promotions in all cities. Besides the consumer product features, the portal provides a rich array of tech-enabled tools to OE manufacturers and car dealers. These include apps for dealers, sales executives to manage leads, cloud services for tracking sales performance, call tracker solutions, digital marketing support, a virtual online showroom, and outsourced lead management operational process for taking consumers from inquiry to sale.

The company acquired ibibo group-owned Gaadi.com in 2014 and gradually launched BikeDekho, PriceDekho, MobileDekho, and many other platforms that combined get more than 55 million unique visitors monthly. According to a BCG study, over 85% of customers who intend to purchase a car in India, visit one of CarDekho’s platforms before making the decision.

Following the acquisition of Gaadi.com, CarDekho became the undisputed market leader in the automobile industry with a collective volume of 15 million visitors monthly. Apart from this, the deal helped the company evolve in the pre-owned car market which otherwise would have taken years had they done it by themselves.

Strategic acquisitions were done to enhance the user interface of the website and apps by using big data and AR/VR technologies besides other offerings.

While CarDekho took over Times Internet-owned Zigwheels, CarTrade acquired Carwale. Continuing its acquisition spree, CarDekho later folded up six companies including Volob, SaaS startup Connecto and roadside assistance Help On Wheels.

By 2016, CarDekho had realised that it was lagging behind in the used car segment and began doubling down on it. However, by the time the decision was made, its competitors like Cars24 had already made inroads in the segment.

The strategy of monetising the user base was pivoted a bit by introduction of finance and insurance verticals (value added services). This was the evolution of CarDekho from an autotech to auto fintech. The company got into the lending segment, an huge untapped opportunity, especially in the used car segment. Loan discovery and processing became an integral part of CarDekho’s used car ecosystem and a huge revenue making vertical. Besides bringing down the loan processing time, the company tied up with BankBazaar.com and Berkshire Insurance to enhance the offering.

Very few players in the market have been able to match CarDekho’s in-depth knowledge and expertise with regards to used car loan underwriting. This works as a huge advantage for the company which has already captured a significant user base in this vertical.

Taking into account the company’s revenue models it has three mediums; the first and the most talked about has been their revenue through AdSense, the second and the most important source is through sponsored ads, and last but not the least is the commission from the manufacturers and dealers.

The company has been grabbing the right opportunities for growth and expansion to expand its revenue. The zeal to constantly grow is the key reason for the company’s success and also the reason behind being able to survive in an ocean full of competition. By developing capabilities in finance and insurance of used vehicles, it has managed to build a unique value proposition.

An Early Entrant

CarDekho was indeed one of the early entrants in the autotech space. This gave the company the required space to grow and experiment. However, it also came with the disadvantage as the start-up had to shoulder the entire responsibility of setting the base for the market, especially convincing the clients/customers. This set the start-up up for a slow start, but a steady one as they began gaining recognition.

After a first few scrappy years, the company finally exploded when it grabbed the attention of investors in 2013. This was the year when the company was engaging in a multimedia marketing campaign with the help of its 200 employees.

Impressed by the company’s marketing strategy Sequoia Capital invested $15 million in the initial round of funding. Not only this, through the help of its innovative marketing campaign CarDekho managed to get a place in the market and it soon became a household name.

Since 2013, the company has never stopped flying, it has been actively receiving new fundings and setting new benchmarks every year. According to the brothers, 2015 was most certainly a golden year for the company which raised $50 million in its Series B funding from Hillhouse and Sequoia Capital besides gaining Tata Group’s trust. This was also the year when the company claimed to have hit 10 million unique visitors and raised its valuation five times to a whopping $300 million. These investments in the next few years were repeated by companies like HDFC, Google Capital, etc.

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“The car platform has been so successful and received so much funding, that the company is looking to make a strong foothold for itself in the two-wheeler industry as well.”

At Top Of The Automotive E-Commerce Business

CarDekho has reported a valuation of $643 million in 2020. Irrespective of being hit by the pandemic, where the automobile industry has been the worst affected sector, CarDekho still managed to grow. Following a temporary blip in visitors, the platform witnessed a surge in unique users after July 2020. It went from 36 million in March to 18 Million in April and back to 51 million in November. As per CMO Gaurav Mehta, personal mobility has seen a boost amidst Covid with customers looking to buy their own vehicle due to virus risk. Despite seeing no sales for almost two months, the founders did not sit twiddling their thumbs. Rather, they worked on introducing home inspection besides providing health insurance.

With a spike in demand for motorcycles in Tier 2 and 3, the company recently launched online insurance portal InsuranceDekho.com offering service in motor and health insurance. The company is also in the process of opening around 56 offline stores across the country, few already in operation, as demand for the used car segment rises. CarDekho is looking at the franchise model for the same.

Through constant hard work and dedication the company today stands at the pinnacle, a story that started humbly in Jaipur has now come a long way and has become a tale of success.

As a global brand, CarDekho, which already has presence in Indonesia and the Philippines under brand names OTO and CARMUDI respectively, aims to strengthen its presence further by entering new markets.

In an interview, Amit mentioned that the start-up is looking to raise about $200 million in a pre-IPO round towards setting up an asset-heavy pre-owned car business.

Stories like that of CarDekho are a reminder that maybe several ideas later you will finally stumble upon something that will turn your story upside down, so never stop thinking and experimenting because one day you might replicate the story of CarDekho in your own way.

For more inspiring stories check out our Inspire section!

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