Auto e-commerce start-up Droom raises $20 mn, eyes Nasdaq listing in 2 yrs

Eyeing a Nasdaq listing in the next two years, online automobile e-commerce platform Droom has raised $20 million (Rs 130 crore) in a round led by Integrated Asset Management (IAM).

This is the fifth round of funding which saw participation from all the existing institutional investors, Lightbox, Beenos, Digital Garage and Beenext. The company has so far raised $65 million, including from the latest tranche of investment.

The company plans to go for an IPO by middle of 2019 and has already started the process of being compliant to the Nasdaq requirements. "We are working towards becoming a listed company. We would be profitable by next year and after that we would be heading for an IPO. We have roped in one of the big four consultancies to do the feasibility study," said Sandeep Aggarwal, Droom founder and CEO.

The present funding round would fuel its plans to strengthen the technology platform, tech-focussed acquisitions and strengthen Droom's brand portfolio. The company plans to acquire tech based platforms which would help it in making its operations better. Aggarwal said that he is not interested in buying any of the other similar platforms or listing portals.

The company is also planning to invest heavily in marketing, something which it has not done till now and had now kept aside Rs 225 crore marketing budget. The company in the last few months has added a number of different categories OBV (for used vehicle pricing, Eco (for auto inspection), Droom History (for used vehicle auto reports), and Droom Credit (instant auto loan for used vehicles).

Last year, Droom raised nearly Rs 200 crore from Beenext and Digital Garage. Prior to that, it had raised seed funding of USD 1.5 million and USD 4 million in May and October 2014, respectively, followed by Series A round of Rs 100 crore in June 2015.

Droom expects to clock Rs 175 crore in revenue by March 2018 and make a profit by the middle of the next year.