Ping An leads $70m Series D for India's CarDekho

Ping An is investing via its Global Voyager Fund, which was set up in 2017 with $1 billion for ex-China deals in financial technology and healthcare. It was joined by Sequoia Capital India and Hillhouse Capital, both of which contributed to a $110 million Series C earlier this year alongside Axis Bank and CapitalG, formerly known as Google Capital.

Founded in 2008, CarDekho positions itself as a leading player in the digitization of the Indian auto industry and aims to provide services across the entire car buying and ownership value chain. Its core offering is a marketplace that helps users with car research and reviews, finance, insurance, price comparison, and the reselling of used cars.

CarDekho claims to facilitate 42% of retail sales for a network of 4,000 new auto dealerships and 3,000 used car dealers across India. It also works with more than 10 financial institutions and 18 insurance companies within the country. International forays include an expansion into Indonesia in 2016 under the Oto brand and the acquisition this month of a platform called Carmundi in the Philippines.

The company reported revenue of $28 million for the first half of the 2019 financial year, a 92% increase versus the prior corresponding period. The performance featured strong year-on-year growth for the business units focused on new cars, used cars, and financial services. The insurance and warranty business was said to have grown 525% year on year during the period. 

"Auto services are a core component of Ping An's 'finance + ecosystem' strategy, reflected in our majority shareholding in Autohome in China,” Donald Lacey, COO of Ping An Global Voyager Fund, said in a statement. “We have been extremely impressed with the business CarDekho has built in India, particularly its success in developing different types of financial services offerings to address car buyers' needs."

Ping An first invested Autohome in 2016, taking a 48% stake from Australian telecoms giants Telstra for $1.6 billion. Autohome is considered China's leading online marketplace for cars and a preferred advertising platform among automakers and dealers. The investment was framed as an opportunity to leverage Ping An’s insurance expertise as Autohome moved away from purely online business model into a full auto transaction service platform.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Financials
• Expansion
• India
• Ping An
• Sequoia Capital
• Hillhouse Capital Management
• Google
• automobiles
• TMT
• Financial Services