Gurugram based automobile marketplace Droom is the new entry to the unicorn club after closing a funding event of $200 million. It is considered a pre-IPO growth funding round. The startup has reached a valuation of $1.2 billion.
Droom Raises $200 Million
Seven-year-old automobile firm has confirmed on Wednesday that it has closed a financial event of $200 million led by 57 Stars, Seven Train Ventures, and several existing investors. During the last financial round in 2018, the automobile startup had a valuation of $500 million.
Toyota and Lightbox are the two major firms that supported Droom initially via investment. Tracxn, the financial records analytical firm has revealed that Droom has raised $342 million to date.
Talking about the more financial records of Droom, Tracxn said, “Droom’s current annual run-rate is $1.7 billion for GMV and $54 million for net revenue. The company remains on track to touch a GMV of $2 billion and net revenue of $65 million in CY2021. With the current scale, technology-oriented business, and operational efficiency Droom is nearing profitability.”
Droom is the 17th Indian startup that got unicorn status in 2021. Compared to last year, global investors have doubled their investments in the Indian startup ecosystem. Droom competes with rising startups like Cars24, CarDekho, Spinny, and others.
Last week, Spinny raised $108 million in new funding round.
Ola has also announced its entry into the used car retailing ecosystem. The firm will give tough competition to other competitors due to its strong infrastructure in India.
Droom Operations
Droom, the Gurugram based startup, plans to start its initial public offering in Nasdaq or India by 2022.
Droom has a huge database of used cars and motorbikes for selling purposes. The startup welcomes the users who want to sell their automobiles. Once listed, the buyers connect with the seller to view, schedule, negotiate and communicate via Droom’s advanced online tool. Sellers are provided with tools to manage their listings and estimate prices and dispute issues.
Sandeep Aggarwal, CEO, and founder of Droom talked about the advanced technology-based online platform and the efforts taken to develop it. He said, “Over the past 7 years, we have invested millions of dollars and thousands of human hours to build a full technology-based end-to-end transactional marketplace for buying and selling automobiles online.”
Droom’s online space is not just for listing the automobiles and buyers-sellers communication, but it also provides the complete technology-based machinery starting from first-mile services such as OBV, ECO, and History to mid-mile services like loan & insurance and last-mile services like doorstep delivery.
The startup recorded promising growth during the pandemic due to its online infrastructure. Droom CEO feels that automobile is the largest retailing category but least penetrated online. He further expects that online automobile buying-selling will grow rapidly in the post-pandemic world.
