CarDekho.com raised USD 50 Million

Girnar Software, parent company of Cardekho.com, valued at USD 300 Million

CarDekho.com, the flagship portal of GirnarSoft announced the closure of second round of funding with a raise of USD 50 Million. The funding was led by Hillhouse Capital with participation from Tybourne Capital and Sequoia Capital. The single transaction funding was concluded early this week. Elara Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the transaction. With this the parent company Girnar Software is now valued at USD 300 Million.

Sharing plans about this venture, Mr. Amit Jain, CEO and Co-Founder, GirnarSoft said, “Together, CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com are by far the largest players in online auto classifieds space by revenue and traffic in the country. Our vision is to be a 3 billion dollar company by 2020 with global footprint by creating innovative products and services.”

“This is first time an India-based auto portal has raised such funds. We see the second round of investment as an endorsement of our strategy and progress so far. Our revenues have grown three-fold since 2013 when we received our first round of funding from Sequoia, and we are doubling our lead generation Y-O-Y. This is the time we are looking to rapidly expand our business and therefore the funding adds to our fast paced growth in the online auto portal segment.”

Mr. Anurag Jain, COO and Co-Founder, GirnarSoft said, “This is a very exciting time for the company and a high point in the Indian automobile industry. With this funding we have plans to enhance the technology and services of CarDekho.com along with increased focus on brand building and marketing initiatives of the company. As the #1 auto portal of the country, it is also our responsibility to develop the category by providing the best offerings to consumers, best services for dealers and top notch support to OEM manufacturers.”

Commenting on their investment, Mr. David Rhee, a partner of Hillhouse Capital said, “We see tremendous growth opportunities in the online automobile classified market in India.  CarDekho, as the clear leading player in this space, is the best positioned to take advantage of this market.  We are in the early stages of the development of the auto industry and its transition to online.  We are excited to be partnering with such an exceptional management team to continue to build and grow this business over the long term.”

Also, sharing views on this partnership, Mr. Eashwar Krishnan, Founder of Tybourne Capital said, “The automobile space has created the largest market value among vertical classifieds and globally public and private companies in the space are together valued at over USD 50 Billion. Given that India is soon to become the third largest car market in the world, Cardekho.com, which is India’s undisputed #1 player, is poised to create significant value for its shareholders.”

Source : CarDekho