New Delhi: Used car marketplace Spinny is in talks to raise $10-15 million from Accel Partners and Sequoia Capital, two people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.
The Gurugram-based company has so far raised $1 million. Spinny Cars counts Blume Ventures, Similie Venture and Partners, Indian Angel Network, through its member Hari Balasubramanian, and Freecharge co-founders Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon as investors.
Spinny Cars, run by Yellow Drive Technologies Pvt. Ltd, is an online platform for buying and selling used cars.
Unlike popular marketplaces for used cars, Spinny buys cars from sellers and holds until sale. It keeps the inventory for a maximum of 35 days, beyond which it disposes of the car to one of its partner dealers.
According to the company, direct sourcing helps cut middlemen commissions and allows it to list cars at 5-6% less than average market rates.
For this purpose, Spinny operates a network of retail hubs where a customer can review the car before buying it. Spinny has three hubs—in Gurugram, Delhi and Noida—according to its website.
E-mails sent to the founder and chief executive officer Niraj Singh didn’t elicit response until press time.
Spinny Cars competes directly with manufacturer-owned used car retailers such as Mahindra First Choice Wheels and Maruti True Value. Other start-ups in the car-reselling industry include CarDekho, CarTrade.Com and Droom Technologies, which serve as a marketplace and do not hold inventory.
Spinny Cars was founded by IIT-Delhi graduates Niraj Singh and Ramanshu Mathur in June 2015. Like other players, it started as a marketplace for used cars but later saw challenges with respect to coordination between buyers and sellers and even quality. The company also offers credit facilities for purchase of used cars. Spinny pivoted to the retailing model in September 2016.
It acquired Delhi-based start-up Hopcar to strengthen its position in the market.