Droom raises $30 mn

FILE PHOTO: Keys hang from the door of a Maruti Suzuki Swift car at its stockyard on the outskirts of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad April 26, 2013. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD

FILE PHOTO: Keys hang from the door of a Maruti Suzuki Swift car at its stockyard on the outskirts of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad April 26, 2013. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD   | Photo Credit: Amit Dave

Funding led by Toyota, Digital Garage

Online automobile marketplace Droom on Thursday said it had raised $30 million (about ₹200 crore) in a series D round led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Digital Garage of Japan.

The recent infusion takes the total funding raised by the company till date to about $95 million, its founder and CEO Sandeep Aggarwal said.

Other markets

Mr. Aggarwal added the platform would “invest heavily” in further developing its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. Droom has also signed an MoU with Toyota Tsusho Corporation, to expand its operations in southeast Asia. While the company is looking at investing about $8-10 million for its foray into countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, it expects the India arm to still account for about 90% of its business.

“The auto market, including vehicle sales and after-sales services like servicing and insurance, is expected to be about $350 billion by 2022 with 6-8% being online,” Mr. Aggarwal said.

Asked if the company was looking at an IPO, Mr. Aggarwal answered in the affirmative. “We will look at listing when we get to net revenues of about $100-110 million. Currently, we have a net revenue of about $16.5 million. We expect that IPO should be possible by the end of 2019,” he said.