CarDekho.com joins hands with Ratan Tata

GirnarSoft,
which operates online auto classifieds player CarDekho, has raised an
undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata. The financial details of the
deal and the percentage of stake remain undisclosed at present.

GirnarSoft,
which operates online auto classifieds player CarDekho, has raised an
undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata. The financial details of the
deal and the percentage of stake remain undisclosed at present.

Last
month, we had reported that online auto classifieds player CarDekho was in
talks to raise around $50 million, in
a new round of funding led by Chinese funds Hillhouse Capital and Tybourne
Capital.

Today,
CarDekho, the flagship portal of GirnarSoft, has announced the closure of
second round of funding with a raise of $50 million. The funding was led by Hillhouse
Capital with participation from Tybourne Capital and Sequoia Capital. The
single transaction funding was concluded early this week. Elara Capital acted
as the exclusive financial advisor to the transaction. With this round, the
parent company Girnar Software is now valued at $300 million.

Sharing
plans about this venture, Amit Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, GirnarSoft said,“Together,
CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com are by far the largest players in online auto
classifieds space by revenue and traffic in the country. Our vision is to be company
with global footprint through our innovative products and services.”

“This is the largest quantum of fund raise in
this segment in India so far. We see the second round of investment as an
endorsement of our strategy and progress so far. Our revenues have grown three-fold
since 2013 when we received our first round of funding from Sequoia, and we are
doubling our lead generation Y-O-Y. This is the time we are looking to rapidly expand
our business and therefore the funding adds to our fast paced growth in the
online auto portal segment” he further added.

Anurag
Jain, COO and Co-Founder, GirnarSoft said, “This is a very exciting time for
the company and a high point in the Indian automobile industry. With this
funding we have plans to enhance the technology and services of CarDekho.com
along with increased focus on brand building and marketing initiatives of the
company. As the #1 auto portal of the country, it is also our responsibility to
develop the category by providing the best offerings to consumers, best
services for dealers and top notch support to OEM manufacturers.”

Commenting
on their investment, David Rhee, a partner of Hillhouse Capital said, “We see
tremendous growth opportunities in the online automobile classified market in
India.  CarDekho, as the clear leading player in this space, is the best
positioned to take advantage of this market.  We are in the early stages
of the development of the auto industry and its transition to online.  We
are excited to be partnering with such an exceptional management team to
continue to build and grow this business over the long term.”

Also,
sharing views on this partnership, Eashwar Krishnan, portfolio manager of
Tybourne Capital said, “We have a substantial amount of capital invested across
global classified assets and are excited to add CarDekho to our portfolio. We
view CarDekho as a direct comparable to Autohome in China (another Tybourne
investment), and as the leader in the space, we expect CarDekho to capture a
substantial portion of the auto classifieds market in India. We look forward to
partnering with the management team as the company moves into its next phase of
growth.”

The
automobile space has created the largest market value among vertical
classifieds and globally public and private companies in the space are together
valued at over $50 billion.