How 19-year-old Pratyush Mishra is using AI to transform grassroots auto retail in India

Can AI help streamline an automotive dealership business? A 19-year-old Pratyush Mishra proved it is indeed possible.

Dealership workers frequently cycle between spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups, phone calls, and isolated software systems just to close a single sale. While industry veterans were blind to this coordination system, a fresh perspective from a teenage tech student exposed the core issue – dealerships didn’t lack software; rather, they had too many tools that simply refused to speak to each other.

This is where Pratyush Mishra and his Trackaroo come in – a fast-growing startup streamlining operations across major Indian automotive dealership networks.

Co-founded by the 19-year-old Mishra and his brother, Trackaroo has scaled to approximately Rs 50 Lakh Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) purely through organic dealer networks and customer referrals. The startup was born out of a chance dealership visit where Mishra and his co-founder brother, Parth, witnessed the heavy coordination chaos of manual processes and disconnected digital tools.

Meet Pratyush Mishra, the man who built Trackaroo

Pratyush Mishra, the man behind Trackaroo, balances the demanding life of a tech builder with his academic pursuit at the Scaler School of Technology (SST) in Bengaluru. Simultaneously, he is also completing his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from BITS Pilani.

At SST, Pratyush immerses himself in software engineering, systems design, and product development. Long before co-founding Trackaroo, he actively worked on workflow systems and operational software projects, developing an early interest in real-world business solutions. His entrepreneurial drive is backed by early leadership roles, having served twice as House Captain, Vice Head Boy, and captain of his school’s basketball team.

By partnering with his elder brother, Parth Mishra, who is an experienced software professional with international SaaS credentials, Pratyush combined first-principles tech training with seasoned industry engineering to attack retail inefficiency.

The Eureka moment for the Mishra brothers

The birth of Trackaroo happened dynamically through an unexpected encounter. Parth Mishra had initially built a remote field-sales tracking tool during his spare time. While pitching this software to prospective clients, the brothers walked into an automobile dealership owned by Shobhit Miglani.

They intended to sell a simple GPS tracking application, but what they witnessed on the dealership floor changed their trajectory completely. They saw manual processes crashing against disconnected digital tools.

Approaching the problem without any traditional “industry baggage,” Pratyush noticed that critical operational functions—like sales, accounts, approvals, HR, and customer follow-ups—were completely siloed.

Recognising a massive problem worth solving, the brothers collaborated directly with Miglani, who explained the deep operational nuances of automotive retail. Miglani didn’t just guide them; he became their very first customer, mentor, and investor in Trackaroo.

Trackaroo’s product: A unified layer for offline retail

Trackaroo replaces operational clutter by integrating sales, CRM, HR, and accounts into a singular, cohesive digital layer. Instead of forcing a workforce into heavy hardware upgrades or steep learning curves, the platform operates seamlessly on the devices agents already own, i.e., web browsers, Android, and iOS.

Trackaroo directly addresses two deeply intertwined economic pain points for Indian business owners:

Eliminating employee time-waste: It collapses the hours managers and field executives spend manually aggregating updates across departments into a single system.

Plugging revenue leakage: By centralising customer information, the platform stops leads from falling through the cracks, prevents delayed approvals, and ensures visible field activity.

The practical, low-friction approach has allowed Trackaroo to handle operations across various automotive segments, including two-wheelers, passenger vehicles, commercial trucks, and EVs. Major dealership networks linked to brands like KTM, Tata Motors, Bajaj Chetak, Ather, and Royal Enfield now utilise the platform to run their businesses.

AI at grassroots level

Instead of using AI as a buzzword or attempting to replace human managers, Trackaroo employs its AI layer strictly to manage grassroots-level administrative friction, says Pratyush. The startup views AI as the ultimate operational assistant.

Speaking to Financial Express Online, Pratyush says, “I do not think AI should replace dealership managers. I think it should remove repetitive coordination work so managers can focus on decision-making.”

At the grassroots dealership level, Trackaroo’s AI continuously monitors live workflows to automate rule-based processes:

Anomaly detection: The AI automatically flags abnormal discounts that deviate from dealership rules.

Lead proactivity: It detects inactive or stalled leads, prompting sales teams to re-engage.

Workflow automation: The system identifies delayed approvals and automatically sends out critical reminders for pending loan processing without requiring constant manual supervision.

By automating these repetitive coordination loops, human managers retain ultimate control over strategic real-world negotiations while the platform accelerates overall execution speed.

“I do believe certain repetitive administrative approvals and operational workflows can gradually become fully automated over time, especially rule-based processes that do not require strategic judgment,” says Pratyush.

“The goal is not to remove humans from the system but to reduce operational friction and improve execution speed,” he adds.

Tracking Trackaroo’s growth, and its future plans

Trackaroo achieved a rare growth milestone without relying on heavy formal marketing budgets, scaling to approximately Rs 50 Lakh ARR entirely through organic customer referrals and tight-knit dealer networks.