CarDekho.com, the flagship portal of GirnarSoft announced the closure of second round of funding after raising $50 mn. The funding was led by Hillhouse Capital with participation from Tybourne Capital and Sequoia Capital. The single transaction funding was concluded early this week. With this the parent company Girnar Software is now valued at $300 mn.
“Together, CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com are by far the largest players in online auto classifieds space by revenue and traffic in the country. This is the largest quantum of funds raised in this segment in India 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,” said Amit Jain, CEO and Co-Founder, GirnarSoft.
“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,” said Anurag Jain, COO and Co-Founder, GirnarSoft.
“We see tremendous growth opportunities in the online automobile classified market in India. CarDekho, as the clear leading player in this space, is best positioned to take advantage of this market,” said David Rhee, a partner of Hillhouse Capital.
Globally public and private companies in the space are together valued at over $50 bn. Given that India is soon to become the third largest car market in the world.
“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,” Eashwar Krishnan, portfolio manager of Tybourne Capital.
“CarDekho has redefined the purchase experience for car buyers in India. The company has assembled one of the best internet teams in India,” said Shailesh Lakhani, Partner at Sequoia Capital.