India used car platform Spinny acquires rival Truebil

The two companies will continue to operate separately for the near term as they target different types of users. While Spinny positions itself as a platform for premium cars that command a higher price, Truebil has a larger inventory of low-cost cars.

The deal will set up exits for Truebil investors Kalaari Capital, Inventus Capital, and Shunwei Capital. To date, Truebil has raised $28 million in venture capital funding, while Spinny has raised $57 million.

Earlier in the year, Spinny had raised around $43 million in a Series B round with the goal of modelling itself after US player Carvana through an extensive network of offline dealerships. Under this model, users can opt for a test drive before buying a used car, get a one-year extended warranty, and full refunds within five days of a sale.

Truebil was founded as a marketplace in 2015 by former employees of property portal Housing.com and online lifestyle outlet Fab.com and adopted the dealership model in 2017. In addition to connecting car buyers and sellers and arranging inspections for potential purchasers, the platform provides services such as car loans, roadside assistance, and insurance renewal. It has offices in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, and New Delhi, and claims to sell more than 500 cars a month.

Spinny co-founder Niraj Singh told Indian news portal MoneyControl that a fall in sale volumes due to COVID-19 meant the two companies felt it was necessary to explore merger talks. Spinny is operational in Hyderabad, Pune, and two surburban towns outside New Delhi – Noida and Gurugram – but it does not have a presence in Mumbai. Singh claimed Truebil, as the country’s leading used car platform, had strong algorithms that ensured high levels of user engageement that could also benefit Spinny’s operations.

“We are not merging the business of the two companies but we are instead acquiring the technology platform, brand and the products of Truebil,” Singh said. “Even if we had not acquired Truebil, we would have started building that part of the business [targeting budget-conscious users] on our own because we had earmarked separate investment for it. But what would have taken us two years to achieve, we have done it now by this acquisition." 

Spinny claims to have facilitated the sale of more than 10,000 cars over the years. Other investors in Spinny include SAIF Partners, General Catalyst Partners, KB Financial Group, Accel Partners and Blume Ventures.

Other operators in this space include CarTrade, CarDekho, Droom, Mahindra First Choice Wheels, Cars24, and OLX. These platforms either list cars from the existing inventory of independent dealerships or help individual sellers place ads online.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Exits
• Technology
• Consumer
• India
• TMT
• automobiles
• Kalaari Capital
• Inventus Capital
• Shunwei Capital Partners