The used car market is getting another major infusion of venture capital today, with one of the faster-scaling startups out of India picking up a major round of financing to double down on growth: Cars24 — a site and app that sells users cars and used two-wheeled motorbikes — has raised $450 million, a Series F of $340 million and $110 million in debt. The investment values Cars24 at $1.84 billion post-money, the company said, making it one of the more valuable privately held used car startups globally.

Vikram Chopra, the CEO who co-founded the company in Gurugram with Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, and Gajendra Jangid, said that the plan will be to use the funds across a range of areas. They include national and international expansion (it’s already operating in India, Australia, and UAE and has its eyes on more markets); technology (specifically areas like further expanding its virtual appraisal process, as well as more data science around pricing and other details related to sales and after-sales); and financing both to buy vehicles, as well as to help consumers make purchasing a vehicle a viable economic option.

“Buying or selling a car is hard anywhere in the world,” Chopra said in an interview. “It’s just a broken experience everywhere, so we are trying to solve for this.” Cars24 has been built around a “buying-in, fixing up and then reselling” model similar to that of the real-estate juggernaut Opendoor: It appraises vehicles from individuals looking to sell them; buys them up if an agreed price can be reached; reconditions them; and then resells and delivers them to new owners. This model, Chopra said, gives Cars24 an edge over some of the shortcomings that exist with traditional players (both on and offline).

Source Credit: Tech Crunch