Buying a car used to be very difficult before the internet age because the industry was just too scattered. Today we have a lot of online portals that will take you through the process effortlessly. One such portal is CarDekho.
Founded by Amit Jain and Anurag Jain in 2008, Cardekho is a car search venture that helps users buy cars that are right for them. Read this article to know about CarDekho, founders, competitors, business and revenue model, startup launch, funding, investors, wiki, and acquisitions.
CarDekho - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | CarDekho |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Gurugram, India |
| Sector | Automotive Ecommerce |
| Founders | Amit Jain, Anurag Jain |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Parent Organization | Girnar Software Private Limited |
| Website | cardekho.com |
About CarDekho and How it Works
CarDekho - USP and Innovation
Founders of CarDekho and team
How was CarDekho Started?
CarDekho - Startup Launch
CarDekho - Growth
CarDekho - Business Model and Revenue Model
CarDekho - Competitors
CarDekho - Valuation, Funding and Investors
CarDekho - Acquisitions
CarDekho - Awards
About CarDekho and How it Works
CarDekho is the product of ‘GirnarSoft’ which is owned by the founder duo, Amit and Anurag. CarDekho is nothing but a web portal that has almost anything and everything about an automobile. This portal not only lists vehicles for trade but also provides dynamic services including insights about the automobile industry, fresh updates, car images and videos, car features, recent launches, prices, or other car specifications in the layman language so that people at home can understand.
While browsing through their website, the consumer comes across various categories such as new launches, upcoming vehicles, used vehicles, to name only a few. This is not it. This portal, CarDekho, also has its own e-store. This e-store portrays and sells a wide array of automobile accessories such as stickers, floor mats, scratch removers, polish, mobile chargers, shampoo, navigators, seat covers, tires, alloy wheels, car stereos, car perfumes, sun films, and many more.
Apart from the services offered relating to the automobile industry, the company also offers various financial services to aid the customer like an instant car loan and car insurance. These financial services are presented by CarDekho in association with BankBazaar.com and Berkshire Insurance respectively.
Would you believe if we said there’s much more than this that CarDekho brings on the table! Because they do! CarDekho has an automotive forum on its website where experts and reviewers that are working with the company answer and resolve car related queries which are posted on the forum.
To cut the long story short, CarDekho is more or less like a virtual car dealer, which is technically sound, updated & most importantly provides an effortless 360-degree experience to its customers.
Also read: CARS24 - India's Largest Used Car Marketplace!
CarDekho - USP and Innovation
CarDekho.com has launched many innovative features to ensure that users get an immersive experience of the car model before visiting a dealer showroom. These include a 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.
The platform also has used car classifieds wherein users can upload their cars for sale, and find used cars for buying from individuals and used car dealers.
Besides the above consumer product features, CarDekho.com provides a rich array of tech-enabled tools to OE manufacturers and car dealers. These include apps for dealer sales executives to manage leads, cloud services for tracking sales performance, call tracker solution, digital marketing support, a virtual online showroom, and outsourced lead management operational process for taking consumers from inquiry to sale.
Founders of CarDekho and team
Amit Jain and Anurag Jain are the founders of CarDekho.
Amit Jain is CEO and Co-Founder while Anurag Jain is COO and Co-Founder at CarDekho.
This founder and brother duo is IIT-Delhi graduates and has spent round-about 8 years working in the corporate sector with companies like TCS & Trilogy. And that’s how Amit developed a liking for products and technology-related things.
Relevant read: Bounce - Making daily commute reliable and affordable in India
How was CarDekho Started?
All of this started when due to some personal reasons, these brothers left their jobs and came back to their hometown. And instead of getting into their family business which happens to be jewelry, this duo thought of starting their enterprise. Eventually, the founder duo concluded doing what they were best at. And this led them to launch GirnarSoft, an IT outsourcing company.
They started by shooting emails to get bigger clients on board. But obviously, this was a tedious task and tested their perseverance. And after shooting billions of emails and making thousands of calls, they finally got on board their first client! Though this project didn’t pay them that much, it led to another project and building a chain of references. Following which they started hiring and accumulating funds to start their project. And thus CarDekho was born.
CarDekho - Startup Launch
A lot of thought and conceptualizing went into building CarDekho after its launch. Even though the company had been launched, they kept their IT consultancy services on-going because the founders wanted the primary income to keep flowing. CarDekho is one of those companies that take the consumer through the whole process, from start till the end and during the process make sure that the customer is satisfied.
Like all the other entrepreneurial ventures, this company too was a little slow in the beginning, but when it geared up the pace, the founders never looked back. And soon enough, its numbers did the talking when they roared success out loud to the world.
Also read: Drivezy - Self-driven Cars at the Most Affordable Prices!
CarDekho - Growth
By January 2012, CarDekho had served 3.4 crore unique visitors being in the 4th year in its journey. And by the end of 2012, the company had covered 2.5 crores, unique visitors, in just one year which came to be their all-time high. Within no time, CarDekho was on the top of the game when the portal scored a record 1.7 lakh used car sales across all the cities of India.
CarDekho launched its iOS application, a month after the Android application was launched which scored 100,000 downloads in just one month. In 2014, its unique visitors on the web portal doubled and the revenues increased by 3x.
By 2014, they were ruling the segment with pride and a team of more than 600 employees! Following which, CarDekho launched BikeDekho, PriceDekho, MobileDekho, and many other similar portals under its umbrella.
CarDekho claimed that it works actively with over 4,000 new auto dealerships and 3,000 used car dealers across India. In addition, it also stated that it has collaborated with more than 10 financial institutions and 18 insurance companies across the country to facilitate used car financing and insurance to provide a seamless experience for both buyers and sellers.
CarDekho - Business Model and Revenue Model
The revenue model of CarDekho has been simple and clear-cut since day 1. There are primarily three mediums of revenue generation;
- Revenue through AdSense,
- Revenue through sponsored advertisements,
- A commission from the manufacturers and dealers.
CarDekho - Competitors
Other online marketplaces in India that deal and cater to the same set of the target audience are Cars24, Droom, Quikr, Olx, Mahindra First Choice Wheels, to only name a few.
Relevant read: List of Top Startups in Bangalore | Best Bangalore Startups
CarDekho - Valuation, Funding and Investors
So far, CarDekho has raised $247.5 million spread across 7 funding rounds to date. Here is a list of all the funding rounds of CarDekho:
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| November 2013 | Series A | $15 million | Sequoia Capital India |
| January 2015 | Series B | $50M | Hillhouse Capital Group, Bourne Capital |
| May 2015 | Venture Round | - | HDFC Bank |
| March 2016 | Venture Round | - | CapitalG |
| March 2018 | Series B | $2.5 million | Sequoia Capital India |
| January 2019 | Series C | $110 million | CapitalG, Hillhouse Capital Group, Sequoia Capital India |
| December 2019 | Series D | $70 million | Ping An Global Voyager Fund |
CarDekho.com, which went live in 2008, was set up by a bunch of young, enthusiastic IIT graduates. Its investors include Google Capital, Tybourne Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Sequoia Capital, HDFC Bank, Ratan Tata and Times Internet.
While CarDekho did not disclose its latest valuation, a person familiar with the matter said it is valued at $700 million post the latest round.
CarDekho also announced a secondary sale in February 2020 allowing eligible employees to cash out 50 percent of their vested options under Girnarsoft group’s ESOP Exercise. According to the company, the cash out is estimated to be worth $3.5 million. This is the second time that this scheme has been floated by the startup this financial year. The first ESOP cash out was announced in April 2019, in which CarDekho bought ESOPs worth $2 million.
CarDekho - Acquisitions
CarDekho has acquired 3 organizations.
| Acquired | Date |
|---|---|
| Gaadi Web | September 2014 |
| Zigwheels | September 2015 |
| Carmudi Philippines | November 2019 |
- Gaadi Web is an automotive portal for Indian market with a search platform for new, used and upcoming vehicles.
- ZigWheels.com is India’s leading auto portal offering the most comprehensive coverage of latest news.
- Carmudi Philippines operates as a local automotive website.
In September 2014, CarDekho acquired ibibo owned Gaadi.com for $11 million. Following this, CarDekho went on to become the undisputed market leader with a massive volume of 15 million visitors on a monthly basis.
Also read: The Impact of Lockdown Extension on Electric Vehicle(EV) Market
CarDekho - Awards
Some of the noteworthy awards that CarDekho received in its early days were:
- Best Automotive Website of 2009
- Best Car Website of 2012
- Most Popular Website of 2012
- Website of the Year India 2011 & 2012
Link : https://startuptalky.com/cardekho-success-story/
Author :- Rishabh Rathi
May 26, 2020 at 09:00AM
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