Warburg Pincus leads $30m round for India’s CarTrade

CarTrade was set up in 2009 by former Mahindra First Choice CEO Vinay Sanghi and Rajan Mehra, managing director at Nirvana Venture Advisors and former country head of eBay India. The company claims to have over 100,000 listings, price profiles, and certifications for used cars, and holds car auctions in 80 Indian cities, with over 1,200 dealers taking part.

The new capital will be used to strengthen the start-up's platform for both consumers and dealers.

"The funds raised shall be employed to further expand our services to help us offer our consumers and dealers a seamless online experience," Sanghi said in statement. "We also plan to focus significantly on the mobile space and provide products and services, which will be best in class and in many cases the first of its kind."

CarTrade is direct competitor of Cardekho.com, the automotive marketplace owned by Girnar Software, which raised $15 million from Sequoia Capital in November of last year. Cardekho specializes in auto classifieds for consumers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and dealers of new and used cars.

This is Warburg Pincus' second investment in India's consumer internet space. It led a $32 million round for Quikr, the country's largest horizontal classifieds platform in May 2012.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Technology
• Consumer
• India
• Warburg Pincus Asia
• Growth capital
• Consumer
• TMT