India’s Girnar Software raises $15m from Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital has invested $15 million in a first round of funding for Girnar Software, which owns the automotive marketplace Cardekho.com. The funds will be used to support the marketplace's expansion plans.
Cardekho launched in 2008 and claims to be India's leading online auto classified for consumers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and dealers of new and used cars.
Apart from offering consumers an online platform to list their used cars via a freemium model, Cardekho offers a variety of research tools, expert reviews, user reviews, on road prices in all cities along with a list of dealers. It also facilitates car finance and insurance options for consumers.
The site gets more than 37 million page views per month from over 3.5 million unique visitors every month, and has over 25,000 used cars listed across several Indian cities and towns.
The company has strategic partnerships with leading OEMs and accounts for 10% of national sales for them. CarDekho currently works with over 2000 new and used car dealers including leading organized retail used car dealers like Mahindra First Choice and Carnation.
"Cardekho is focused on creating an experience for consumers buying a new or used car and super-focused on creating business value to dealers across India. In this e-commerce era, where most start-ups are losing money, we are one of the few who are able to run a real business which generates profits," Girnar said in a statement.
The Times of India reported that the deal is for a 20% stake in Girnar Software, which values the five-year-old company at over $50 million. Shailesh Lakhani, principal at Sequoia Capital India Advisors, will join the board of the company.
Cardekho will launch an array of dealer focussed tools and services on a mobile platform, and more features for consumers on the site.
Girnar has also launched a gadget shopping comparison platform, pricedekho.com and Bikedekho.com, a marketplace for bikes.
Girnar's websites compete with Nirvana Ventures-backed Cartrade.com and Gaadi.com, which has raised funding from Naspers.
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