In 2008, a significant buzz was observed in the automobile industry with various lucrative opportunities encouraging various enthusiastic entrepreneurs to launch their own car companies to cash in on the hype. However, there was still a huge leap to be made by these ventures to win the trust of their customers, the lack of transparent and unbiased information available on cars resulted in skepticism shown by the targeted audience
In the same year, a random visit to the Delhi Auto Expo was made by two brothers in January which spurred them to start a venture that would make buying cars more effortless. Little did they know that what started as a small garage in March 2008 would turn into India’s leading portal for buying, renting, or providing other automobile services.
Established in 2008 by two brothers Amit and Anurag Jain alongside Umang Kumar, the B2C-modeled startup CarDekho started with a small garage in the tier-II city of Jaipur, Rajasthan with 20 employees at first. Now, India’s one of the biggest online platforms for all car things, the firm has seen tremendous growth over the years.
Headquartered in Rajasthan the firm recently bagged $200M funding in SeriesE which was announced on 13 October 2021 led by LeapFrog Investments. The Auto-tech firm’s website 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 solutions, digital marketing support, virtual online showrooms, and outsourced lead management operational processes for taking consumers from inquiry to sale. The Auto-tech giant is now expecting 60% growth in its overall revenue in 2024.
Year-on-Year Analysis
The firm’s valuation was around $400-500Min 2020 where it experienced a growth rate of 271% as its revenue skyrocketed to Rs.706Cr in FY20 from Rs.260Cr in FY19. The total funding generated was $247.5M by then and the net loss incurred in FY20 was Rs.326Cr.
In 2021, the Rajasthan-based startup was valued at $525M. The overall revenue was Rs.884Cr while the growth rate observed was 125%. However, the firm didn’t manage to obtain any funds in FY21, and the net loss increased to Rs.343Cr.
For FY22, the valuation surged past the $1B mark giving the firm the label of a unicorn. The major reason for it is a whopping $250M fund gained by the startup in Series E Round. The growth rate rose to 180% as the total revenue generated by the firm was Rs.1,597Cr.
The next fiscal year, the startup didn’t raise any funds and the overall revenue generated was Rs.2,231Cr hence the growth rate in FY23 was 139%. However, the valuation of the company declined to Rs.9,919Cr.
In 2024, according to the company’s heads, the firm is expected to observe a 60% overall growth in revenue. Sequentially, the Q1, and Q2 of FY24 for the firm have observed positive EBITDA rates and PAT.
Autotech and financial solution provider CarDekho Group is eyeing over 40% consolidated headline growth in FY25 and is on the prowl for value-accretive acquisitions, chief executive and co-founder and Shark Tank India judge Amit Jain has said.
The Group expects to notch 50% growth (CAGR) in the current fiscal, with businesses like InsurTech Platform InsuranceDekho, and Southeast Asia Business aiding growth.
The main competitors for CarDekho specifically in India are CarTrade, CarWale, Droom, and CarandBike. CarDekho owns a majority of the market share, 32% to be specific.
CarDekho has acquired 3 organizations. The latest is Revv on 1 December 2023. The other 2 acquisitions are Carmudi Philippines and Gaadi Web. While the amount of the deal remains undisclosed for Revv and Carnudi Philippines, CarDekho acquired Gaadi Web for $11M.
CarDekho’s co-founder Amit Jain is a famous TV personality as well and can be seen judging the Indian Shark Tank version.
