Droom raises $30 million from Toyota, Digital Garage, others
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The world's largest automaker Toyota is all set to drive into India having led a $30 million (about Rs 203 crore) equity financing round in online marketplace for used automobiles and auto services Droom. The investment which has been made from Toyota’s subsidiary Toyota Tsusho Corp was also co-led by Japanese incubator and venture capital investor Digital Garage.
This is the Fortune 500 company’s first investment in the Indian startup and internet business ecosystem.
The Series D round also saw participation from Asia-based investment manager Ellison Investments as also existing investors along with several institutional investors and family offices from China, Hong Kong and South East Asia.
The Singapore and Gurgaon-based company has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Toyota to expand its services overseas to markets such as Indonesia and Thailand.
Including the latest round of funding, Droom, which competes with the likes of Temasek and Warburg Pincus-backed CarTrade and Google Capital and Hillhouse Capital-backed CarDekho, has raised about $95 million in equity financing.
The capital will be used to hone the technology end of the platform and will see Droom invest heavily in further developing its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to target a significant growth in scale.
“Droom has seen tremendous growth over the past three and half years in terms of adoption by buyers and sellers, number of categories and listings, geographical presence and GMV of transactions. This partnership (with Toyota) will play a major role for Droom as we realise our growth potential, both in India and internationally,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Droom.
The company claims to generate about $700 million in gross revenue and $15 million in net revenue. The platform has about 250,000 auto dealers across over 500 cities in India.
"We were impressed that Droom has rapidly established its leadership position as the largest online marketplace to buy and sell automobiles in India. We believe that this partnership contributes to the establishment of highly transparent transaction of automotive and the wholesome development of auto market of any developing countries, by combining Droom’s technologically advanced platform and our various automotive business experience of all over the world," said a spokesperson for Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
The expansion will help Droom double its gross merchandise value to $1.4 billion by the end of 2018 and $3.5 billion by 2019. Droom is targetting a public listing through an IPO by the end of 2019.
This is the Fortune 500 company’s first investment in the Indian startup and internet business ecosystem.
The Series D round also saw participation from Asia-based investment manager Ellison Investments as also existing investors along with several institutional investors and family offices from China, Hong Kong and South East Asia.
The Singapore and Gurgaon-based company has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Toyota to expand its services overseas to markets such as Indonesia and Thailand.
Including the latest round of funding, Droom, which competes with the likes of Temasek and Warburg Pincus-backed CarTrade and Google Capital and Hillhouse Capital-backed CarDekho, has raised about $95 million in equity financing.
The capital will be used to hone the technology end of the platform and will see Droom invest heavily in further developing its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities to target a significant growth in scale.
“Droom has seen tremendous growth over the past three and half years in terms of adoption by buyers and sellers, number of categories and listings, geographical presence and GMV of transactions. This partnership (with Toyota) will play a major role for Droom as we realise our growth potential, both in India and internationally,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Droom.
The company claims to generate about $700 million in gross revenue and $15 million in net revenue. The platform has about 250,000 auto dealers across over 500 cities in India.
"We were impressed that Droom has rapidly established its leadership position as the largest online marketplace to buy and sell automobiles in India. We believe that this partnership contributes to the establishment of highly transparent transaction of automotive and the wholesome development of auto market of any developing countries, by combining Droom’s technologically advanced platform and our various automotive business experience of all over the world," said a spokesperson for Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
The expansion will help Droom double its gross merchandise value to $1.4 billion by the end of 2018 and $3.5 billion by 2019. Droom is targetting a public listing through an IPO by the end of 2019.