LeapFrog leads $250m round for India's CarDekho

It establishes CarDekho as the 32nd Indian start-up to achieve unicorn status this year and comes within days of three other companies reaching the milestone: crypto exchange Coinswitch Kuber, online butcher Licious, and cloud kitchen operator Rebel Foods.

The total population of Indian unicorns is difficult to discern. Estimates between 55 and 65 are commonly reported, but local VCs have suggested figures as high as 100 since 2019. From 2010 to 2017, only one or two Indian companies achieved $1 billion-plus valuations in any given year. That figure jumped to about 10 for both 2018 and 2019.

The phenomenon is characterized by faster roads to the $1 billion mark. For example, financial technology giant Paytm took five years to become a unicorn in 2015. This year, jobs marketplace Apna, which crossed the threshold just 21 months after launching its flagship product.

CarDekho, which was founded in 2008, has had a considerably longer journey. Sequoia Capital India was among the earliest believers, having provided a $15 million Series A in 2013. It returned for a $50 million Series B in 2015, a $110 million Series C in 2019, and a $70 million Series D in 2019. The latter round was at a valuation of $725 million.

Sequoia is also participating in the Series E – which comprises $200 million in equity and $50 million in debt – alongside new investors Canyon Partners, Mirae Asset, Franklin Templeton, and Harbor Spring Capital, as well as existing backer Sunley House. Previous investors also include Hillhouse Capital, Googl Capital, and Ping An Global Voyager Fund.

CarDekho buys cars from customers in more than 100 markets and has a catalogue of around 3,000 certified pre-owned cars for online purchase. It will be expanding its used car retail transactions business geographically and is set to increase its catalogue to 10,000 cars in the near future.

The company plans to expand across India with retail hubs that will focus on both used car buying and certified pre-owned car retail transactions with customers. Its auto and non-auto products are currently used in about 30 countries. The team is based in India, Indonesia, and the Philippines and is expected to expand internationally.

“We expect the business to continue on its rapid growth trajectory thanks to the calibre of the team and the extraordinary tailwinds which this segment now enjoys from increasing formalisation, digitization and transparency,” Stewart Langdon, a partner and co-head of South Asian investments at LeapFrog, said in a statement.

“CarDekho is an outstanding platform for large-scale social impact, already making vehicles more accessible, affordable, and trustworthy for over three million emerging consumers. Improving access to mobility in this way will help to drive development in other key areas, such as healthcare and education.”

CarDekho is considered a pioneer of India’s digital auto ecosystem, although not the largest. Other longstanding players include Droom, which raised a $200 million pre-IPO round earlier this year at a valuation of $1.2 billion. Droom claims to process 80% of all online automobile transactions in the country. It works with about 300,000 auto dealers, compared to 7,500 for CarDekho.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Expansion
• India
• LeapFrog Investments
• Sequoia Capital
• automobiles
• TMT