CarTrade Tech To Deploy Up To $100 Mn (INR 750 Crores) for Strategic Acquisitions and Investments In the Automotive Ecosystem

Photo by Lokman Sevim from Pexels

CarTrade Tech plans to acquire and invest in companies which will help the group digitize the buying and selling journey of vehicles

Will acquire and invest in companies offering differentiated services and technology in the automotive space

CarTrade Tech Ltd, one of India's leading automotive platforms, plans to deploy up to USD 100 mn (INR 750 crores) to strategically acquire and invest into companies in the automotive space. The group wants to strengthen its position as a leading automotive platform in India by acquiring and investing in companies which will help it to either enter a new market / segment or bring new products and technologies to existing customers.

The group is actively looking to acquire and invest in companies that are driving innovation in all aspects of the automobile ecosystem which include auto finance, leasing, insurance, servicing, car ownership, electric vehicles and new age tech to digitize the auto buying and selling journey. In addition to capital, CarTrade Tech will bring unique value to these companies through synergies with group companies, and access to customers and technology, thereby helping these companies scale rapidly.

CarTrade Tech over the last few years has successfully acquired and integrated CarWale – a leader in the online new and used car space, Shriram Automall (SAMIL) – a leader in the auto auction space, BikeWale – a leader in the 2 wheeler online space and Adroit Auto – a leader in auto inspections and valuations.

Commenting on the same, Mr. Vinay Sanghi, Founder & Chairman, CarTrade Tech added, “We want to completely digitize the process of buying and selling vehicles and continue to be a key enabler in the growth of the auto ecosystem. To facilitate this, we are looking to deploy up to USD 100 mn for acquiring and investing into companies that are driving innovation in the auto ecosystem, so that we can offer the consumer a great online auto shopping and ownership experience. We have been very successful in growing our business organically and inorganically and want to acquire and invest into companies which will help us accelerate the digital transformation process. We are very excited about partnering with entrepreneurs who share the same vision and passion.”

About CarTrade Tech Limited: (www.cartradetech.com; NSE: CARTRADE; BSE: 543333)

CarTrade Tech Ltd. is a multi-channel auto platform with presence across vehicle types and value-added services. The platform gets 34 million average monthly unique visitors and based on Q2FY22 annualized numbers lists 1.2 mn vehicles for auction. The platform operates under several brands: CarWale, CarTrade, Shriram Automall, BikeWale, CarTrade Exchange, Adroit Auto and AutoBiz. These platforms enables new and used automobile customers, vehicle dealerships, vehicle OEMs and other businesses to buy and sell vehicles in a simple and efficient manner.

IPO of Cartrade Tech Limited Listed on Bourses

Listing Ceremony of CarTrade Tech Limited

CarTrade Tech, a multi-channel auto platform via its several integrated brands such as CarWale, CarTrade, Shriram Automall, BikeWale, CarTrade Exchange, Adroit Auto and Auto Biz; listed on BSE at Rs. 1,600 a 1.11% discount to its issue price. The scrip got listed NSE at Rs. 1,599.80 per share, a 1.12% discount to its issue price of Rs. 1618. The shares of the company at day end closed at Rs. 1,500.10 per share on BSE and Rs. 1,491 per share on NSE.

As per BSE, the total quantity traded stood at 5,21,763 lacs shares with a delivery quantity percentage of 29.20%. Quantity traded and delivery percentage at NSE was approx. 11 crore shares and 51.56 % respectively. Total Turnover (BSE+NSE) on Day 1 stood at Rs. 1,81,544.84 lacs.

The Market Capitalization of the Company post today’s closing price stood at Rs. 6,875.57 crores as per BSE and Rs. 6,879 crores as per NSE.

The Offer was an offer for sale of up to 18,532,216 Equity Shares (“Offer for Sale”) by the Selling Shareholders, received bids of 26,31,74,823 shares against the offered 1,29,72,552 equity shares. The portion reserved for retail investors was subscribed 2.75 times. While the Qualified Institutional Buyer category was subscribed 35.45 times and the Non-Institutional Investor category was subscribed 41 times.

Key brokerage houses like Antique Stock Broking, Anand Rathi, Ashika Stock Broking Limited, Nirmal Bang and ICICI Direct, had given recommendations of "Subscribe" to the issue for long term perspective while highlighting the key strengths of the company like (a) differentiated and profitable business model (b) Strong brand suite serving an addressable market worth US$ 14.3 billion (c) Strong competitive positioning driven by superior customer experience, brand and powerful network effect and (d) looking to monetize value added services and untapped opportunities. CarTrade Tech is a multi-channel auto platform with a presence across varied vehicle types and value-added services. Its platforms operate under several brands: CarWale, CarTrade, Shriram Automall, BikeWale, CarTrade Exchange, Adroit Auto and AutoBiz. Through these platforms, CT enables new and used automobile customers, vehicle dealerships, vehicle OEMs and other businesses to buy and sell their vehicles. Furthermore, it is the only profitable company among other related Platforms with 32 million average monthly unique visitors.

Company Information

CarTrade Tech is a multi-channel auto platform with coverage and presence across vehicle types and value-added services. The company’s platforms operate under several brands: CarWale, CarTrade, Shriram Automall, BikeWale, CarTrade Exchange, Adroit Auto and AutoBiz. Through these platforms, CarTrade Tech enables new and used automobile customers, vehicle dealerships, vehicle OEMs and other businesses to buy and sell their vehicles in a simple and efficient manner.

The company’s consumer platforms i.e. CarWale, CarTrade and BikeWale, collectively get 3.2 crore average unique visitors every month (during the 3 months period ending March 31 2021) and Shriram Automall and other auction platforms had 8,14,316 vehicles listed for auction during FY 2021.

CarTrade Tech was the only profitable digital auto platform for the financial year 2020 (Source: RedSeer Report). CarTrade Tech is profitable since FY 19.

The company generates revenues from commission and fees from auctions and remarketing services, online advertising solutions, lead generation, technology based services to OEMs/Dealers/Banks and other financial institutions and inspection and valuation services.

The company is led by Mr Vinay Vinod Sanghi who is the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO. Key management personnel include Aneesha Menon - Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, Banwari Lal Sharma - Chief Executive Officer – Consumer Business, Sameer Malhotra - Chief Executive Officer of Shriram Automall, Akshay Shankar - Chief Product Officer – Group and Vikram Alva - Chief Strategy Officer – Group.

It is backed by marquee institutional shareholders that include affiliates of Warburg Pincus, Temasek, JP Morgan and March Capital.

Auto Classifieds Portal CarTrade Acquires Vehicle Inspection Firm Adroit Inspection

Cartrade.com, India’s online automobile classifieds firm today announced that it has acquiredAdroit Inspection, leading vehicle Inspection and valuation company with tie ups with leading banks and insurance companies and a well-entrenched team of over 300 field inspectors spread across the country. Adroit will inspect over one million vehicles this year.

Cartrade, post with its merger with Carwale, is India’s leading automobile marketplace which helps consumers to buy and sell new and used cars. To further strengthen its services in the new and used car segment, the platform has acquired this leading vehicle inspection and valuation company.

Incepted in 2005, Adroit Group was founded by three first generation entrepreneurs, namely Himanshu Lohiya, Mukesh K Gupta and Puneet Tyagi. The promoters bring with them extensive expertise and experience in the domain of vehicle inspection and valuation.

Commenting on the strategic acquisition, Mr. Vinay Sanghi, Founder & CEO Cartrade added, “There are immense opportunities waiting to be tapped in the vehicle inspection and valuation space. The Adroit team undoubtedly is the best in the market. We are extremely excited to have on board such young and dynamic entrepreneurs in order to further strengthen our dominance in the new and used vehicles market segment.”

Reiterating in the same vein, Mr. Ravi Mehra President & Auction head, Cartrade said, “This acquisition addresses a crucial challenge – the ability to inspect vehicles promptly across the spread of the country. The ability to touch and feel vehicles not only enables smooth and efficient used vehicle transactions but is also the core for supplementary propositions, which includes aspects like re-finance, warranties, insurance etc. The collaboration will help execute over 1 million physical inspections and valuations in the current fiscal year.”

Mukesh K Gupta, CEO, Adroit Inspection, said, “We are very happy with this partnership and are excited to be a part of Cartrade, which is India’s largest used and new Car online platform currently.”

CarTrade along with Carwale has 35 million visits per month, leadership in both used and new cars and partners with approximately 8,000 new and used car dealer partners. The platforms list more than 200,000 used cars for sale every month and auctions over 200,000 vehicles to the wholesale market every year. Warburg Pincus, Temasek, JP Morgan and March Capital are its key investors.

Despite Slowdown, Car Portals Zoom On Growth Drive

All those following the Indian startup industry closely in the recent past, might be aware of the venture capital funding slowdown that has taken over the industry. The slowdown has forced many startups to take a backseat or hang their boots altogether. Hyperlocal delivery start-up PepperTap was the recent one to wrap up its operations and bow down out of the game due to financial pressure.

But as they say, there is always an exception. Same is the case here as well. Well, while Indian startups across all sectors are currently facing tough times, surprisingly the automobile sector is zooming towards good times.

Nowadays, more and more people prefer buying their cars online because of the lucrative deals and the amount of time they end up saving if they would have physically gone to a showroom. This major shift in automobile buying patterns, has resulted in flow of cash and customers for auto portals like CarDekho and CarTrade. Reportedly, both these major players of the sector are doing incredibly well on the revenue fund and can hire up to 2,000 employees in this financial year. While a majority of the hiring will take place in the customer engagement department, sales department and client acquisition department, about 10 percent of the positions will be reserved for hiring people in the tech department.

Statistics reveal that till two years ago only 10 percent users searched online before fixing up a meeting with a car dealer. But now, over 40 percent users search online before making that appointment with an offline dealer.

This has helped these auto portals cash in moolah in three ways. Since a majority of consumers make use of these portals, the dealers are almost forced to have their presence on these portal and pay a fee to be listed. For the car manufacturers, these portals act as a great advertising medium. Some of these portals also allow transactions to take place through them and when that happens, they change a nominal 1.5 to 2.5 percent commission from the car dealers.

CarDekho's parent company, GirnarSoft, has swollen from a 1,200 team in March last year to a strong 3,000 team in March this year. According to sources, the startup aspires to take this number to 3,500 by the end of first quarter of this financial year. Automobile portal CarDekho is GirnarSoft's most successful and biggest business till date.

On the other hand, the Mumbai headquartered CarTrade has an employee count of 2,000. This figure includes the 600 employees it recently added when it acquired CarWale in 2015. According to a report in a national daily, the company may end up hiring up to 1500 more employees this fiscal year.

It is important to note that both these startups were bootstrapped for a significant period of time in their initial startup stage and as a result have established themselves on solid fundamentals. Founded in the year 2005, CarDekho opened its funding account only in the year 013 with a $15 million funding.

Reportedly, CarTrade has raised $175 million till date and CarDekho has raked in $65 million so far in funds.

[ Top Image Credit - Shuttestock ]

Despite Slowdown, Car Portals Zoom On Growth Drive

All those following the Indian startup industry closely in the recent past, might be aware of the venture capital funding slowdown that has taken over the industry. The slowdown has forced many startups to take a backseat or hang their boots altogether. Hyperlocal delivery start-up PepperTap was the recent one to wrap up its operations and bow down out of the game due to financial pressure.

But as they say, there is always an exception. Same is the case here as well. Well, while Indian startups across all sectors are currently facing tough times, surprisingly the automobile sector is zooming towards good times.

Nowadays, more and more people prefer buying their cars online because of the lucrative deals and the amount of time they end up saving if they would have physically gone to a showroom. This major shift in automobile buying patterns, has resulted in flow of cash and customers for auto portals like CarDekho and CarTrade. Reportedly, both these major players of the sector are doing incredibly well on the revenue fund and can hire up to 2,000 employees in this financial year. While a majority of the hiring will take place in the customer engagement department, sales department and client acquisition department, about 10 percent of the positions will be reserved for hiring people in the tech department.

Statistics reveal that till two years ago only 10 percent users searched online before fixing up a meeting with a car dealer. But now, over 40 percent users search online before making that appointment with an offline dealer.

This has helped these auto portals cash in moolah in three ways. Since a majority of consumers make use of these portals, the dealers are almost forced to have their presence on these portal and pay a fee to be listed. For the car manufacturers, these portals act as a great advertising medium. Some of these portals also allow transactions to take place through them and when that happens, they change a nominal 1.5 to 2.5 percent commission from the car dealers.

CarDekho's parent company, GirnarSoft, has swollen from a 1,200 team in March last year to a strong 3,000 team in March this year. According to sources, the startup aspires to take this number to 3,500 by the end of first quarter of this financial year. Automobile portal CarDekho is GirnarSoft's most successful and biggest business till date.

On the other hand, the Mumbai headquartered CarTrade has an employee count of 2,000. This figure includes the 600 employees it recently added when it acquired CarWale in 2015. According to a report in a national daily, the company may end up hiring up to 1500 more employees this fiscal year.

It is important to note that both these startups were bootstrapped for a significant period of time in their initial startup stage and as a result have established themselves on solid fundamentals. Founded in the year 2005, CarDekho opened its funding account only in the year 013 with a $15 million funding.

Reportedly, CarTrade has raised $175 million till date and CarDekho has raked in $65 million so far in funds.

[ Top Image Credit - Shuttestock ]

CarTrade Raises Rs 185 Crore From Warburg Pincus & Existing Investors

Mumbai based CardTrade.com, one of India's leading online auto classified portal has raised Rs.185 crore from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity firm with participation from existing investors
Canaan Partners and Tiger Global existing investors, Canaan Partners and Tiger Global.

A statement from CarTrade said the fresh capital will be used to diversify and strengthen the company's offerings to consumers and dealers.

"We are extremely happy to have Warburg Pincus on board as a partner," CarTrade Founder and CEO Vinay Sanghi said in the statement, adding, "the funds raised shall be employed to further expand our services to help us offer our consumers and dealers a seamless online experience. We also plan to focus significantly on the mobile space and provide products and services, which will be best in class and in many cases the first of its kind."

Warburg Pincus India Managing Director Nitin Nayar said his company sees "tremendous potential in the domestic automobile market. CarTrade is one of the most innovative platforms in the online auto sector, and has shown strong growth momentum in the last couple of years."

Warburg Pincus is focused on growth investing and has over $ 39 billion in assets under management spanning over 125 companies.

CarTrade.com is one of India's leading online automotive market for buyers and sellers of new and used vehicles. It offers a selection of over 1,00,000 listings, price information and certification for used cars. For new buyers, it offers reviews, on-road prices, car comparisons and latest auto news. Car auctions done at CarTrade.com portal take place across more than 80 cities with over 1200 dealers participating in these auctions.