Temasek leads $55m round for India's CarTrade

A US-based family office, whose identity was not disclosed, also participated in the funding round. The company will use the new capital to add more verticals, including car financing; to improve its relations with car manufacturers, dealers and consumers; and to pursue acquisitions.

CarTrade was founded in 2009 as a platform for buying and selling used cars. The company’s acquisition of new car marketplace CarWale in 2015 made it the country’s largest auto classifieds platform, with about 15 million unique customers per month and partnerships with around 8,000 new and used car dealers.

Temasek first invested in CarTrade last year, leading a INR9.5 billion round alongside US-based March Capital. Other investors in the company include Warburg Pincus, which participated in last year’s round and previously led a INR1.85 million investment in 2014. Existing investors Canaan Partners and Tiger Global Management also took part in that round.

CarTrade’s primary competitor is CarDekho, founded in 2008 as a source of automotive news and reviews as well as a platform for selling new and used vehicles, taking out insurance and securing car loans. It has raised several rounds of funding, including a $50 million Series B round in 2015 led by Hillhouse Capital and an investment of an undisclosed amount last year by Google Capital (now Capital G) and Hillhouse.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• India
• TMT
• automobiles
• Temasek Holdings
• Growth capital