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Selling a car used to be a tedious task before the online portals made our lives easier. One such portal, which the former skipper of the Indian cricket team, Mahendra Singh Dhoni endorses is CARS24.
Founded by Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Gajendra Jangid, and Ruchit Agarwal, CARS24 is an e-commerce platform focused on online car buying and selling, which aims to make the whole buying and selling process of cars easier and more efficient.
CARS24 - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-CARS24
- Headquarter-Gurgaon, India
- Sector-Automotive
- Founders-Gajendra Jangid, Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal, Vikram Chopra
- Founded -August 2015
- Valuation-$3.3 billion (December 2021)
- Revenue-$371 million (FY21)
- Funding-$1.52 billion (December 2021)
- Parent Organization-Global Car Group
- Website-www.cars24.com
CARS24 - About and How it Works
CARS24 is a cutting-edge e-commerce platform for pre-owned autos, including cars and bikes, which strives to make buying and selling autos a breeze. The platform offers a wide range of certified cars along with smooth and convenient home delivery facilities with the click of a button.
On the other hand, the company also takes care of its sellers, whom it promises to credit the best price of their cars within an hour. With the AI-enabled pricing system that empowers the startup, CARS24 can display the accurate market price and the appraisal value of the vehicle.
CARS24 is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company and one of the fastest-growing used car marketplaces in India. CARS24 is the first company in the used-car industry that brought a 'transaction led' approach to selling a car. With this portal, a potential car owner can easily sell their car privately with the utmost security in less than 2 hours and get paid instantly. While on the other end, CARS24 has thousands of used car businesses that buy these cars online via mobile auctions from these potential car owners across India.
The company, though just 6 years old, has become highly sought-after due to the demand of the supply-side conducting over 100,000 transactions a year. CARS24 buys all these cars from more than 15 cities across the country and sells them to over 100 cities in India. The company's unique C2B model has helped it to leapfrog the existing C2C and B2C models obstructively.
Building this empire on its unique advantages, CARS24 currently dominates the used car ecosystem that includes sectors such as financial services, and information services. Apart from dealing in used cars online, CARS24 also has an offline presence in terms of brick and mortar stores, with more than 155 branches in over 35 cities in India.
CARS24 is disrupting the pre-owned car industry in India and addressing the challenges faced by car owners, by providing them with a world-class customer experience that is quick, easy, and hassle-free.
CARS24 also received an NBFC license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for its new entity — CARS24 Financial Services. With Cars24 Financial Services, the company will facilitate vehicle loans to customers as well as finance channel partners to help them expand their businesses. The customers will be eligible for a credit based on the car value they are buying. For consumers, the average ticket size of a loan would be INR 2.5 Lakh - INR 3 Lakh.
CARS24 - Industry
The used car market in India was valued at $27 billion in 2020 and will probably reach around $50 billion by 2026. This is an industry that hardly had to face any after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CAGR of the industry has been registered at 15% during the period between 2021 and 2026.
CARS24 - Founders/Owners and Team
Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Gajendra Jangid, and Ruchit Agarwal are the founders of CARS24.
Vikram Chopra
Vikram Chopra is the CEO and Co-Founder of CARS24- He has a BTech and MTech in Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and earned an MBA in Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. Vikram is a former Co-Founder of FabFurnish and Investment Analyst of Sequoia Capital and was also a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company.
Mehul Agrawal
Mehul Agrawal is the Co-Founder and COO of CARS24- He holds an MBA from IIM Calcutta and has worked with BCG in the past. Earlier, Mehul started an online furniture company called FabFurnish.
Gajendra Jangid
Gajendra Jangid is the Co-Founder and CMO of CARS24 - Like Vikram, Gajendra too has a BTech and MTech in Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Before co-founding CARS24, Gajendra was working with Schlumberger.
Ruchit Agarwal
Ruchit Agarwal is the Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer of CARS24- Graduated from Cornell University, Ruchit was a Vice President at Bank of America Merrill Lynch before co-founding CARS24.
CARS24 currently has more than 150 branches across 35 cities in India and is backed by a team of over 700 employees.
CARS24 - Startup Story
On scanning the used cars industry, the founders quickly discovered that the industry was in utter chaos. Besides, the industry is full of loopholes that went unmended from the very beginning. A standard procedure is thus, totally absent when it comes to selling or purchasing a used car. Furthermore, the industry was also devoid of any technological advancements that would help in the pricing of the used cars and ultimately prove to be a boon.
Another obstacle related to the used cars market is in finding access to the potential users without bumping into jumbled market players who aren't aware of a detailed appraisal of the car. Therefore, after a keen observation of the discrepancies in the market, the founders of CARS24 decided to come up with a technology that would help resolve these issues and simplify the process of purchasing and selling used cars online.
CARS24 - Mission and Vision
"Our mission is to revolutionise the way used cars are bought and sold across the world", says the mission statement of the company.
The vision of the company is to revolutionize the way used cars are sold by coming up with an efficient and reliable way for car owners to sell used cars at a reasonable price.
CARS24 - Name, Tagline and Logo
Though CARS24 hasn't disclosed a naming story, the name CARS24 has probably come from their idea of emerging as a 24/7 car buying and selling platform.
CARS24 - Business Model and Revenue Model
The business of CARS24 is modelled on the model of a used-car resale business. The CARS24 business model revolves around the parameters of buying any car from its owner at the best price compared with other car resale services in the area. Basically, what CARSs24 aims to offer Indian consumers is an alternative to other tedious means of selling a used car, thus making this process simple and convenient.
CARS24 offers a guaranteed price on any car, regardless of the model, age, or condition. So, what happens is that used car owners can sell their car in just a single visit to any CARS24 branch. Also, the user can obtain a rough valuation that is based on the details of their car online on this portal. The potential sellers who sell their cars on this platform receive an instant payment.
CARS24 also manages the handover of legal documentation relating to vehicle registration, if any, at no additional cost to the seller. This company mainly operates in areas like automotive, e-commerce, retail, and used car trade, and has grown tremendously since its inception based on this stellar model.
CARS24 follows a customer-to-business (C2B) model. It buys cars from individuals and sells them to dealers. Unlike a classified platform, CARS24 enables end-to-end transactions and charges a commission for each transaction, which equals 4-5% of each transaction amount. The sale of the pre-owned is the largest revenue driver for the company. Next, comes the financing services that the CARS24 offers its customers, followed by the commission and service income. The unicorn user-car retailers also earn non-operating revenues from the return on financial assets.
CARS24 - Growth and Revenue
CARS24 is currently hailed as the market leader in the online used car space with over 90% of the market share. The company has clocked over four lakh transactions to date.
In a recent interview, CEO and Co-founder Vikram Chopra said, "We sell nearly 20,000 cars every month, about 250K in a year. This is just shy of a billion dollars worth of cars now. We are now present across over 200 cities in India with a 7000 strong workforce.
Mega Refurbishment Labs
CARS24 announced its plans to launch refurbishment facilities called ‘Mega Refurbishment Labs’ (MRLs) on October 20, 2021. It will set up 7 such labs in 2022 across 35 acres of land in top Indian metro cities, as per reports.
CARS24 Revenue, Expenses and Financials
CARS24 recorded a significant decline (by around 12.6%) in its operating revenues at $371.3 million (Rs 2,717.9 crore) during FY21, which was reported to be around $424.7 million (Rs 3108.8 crore) in FY20. The sale of used/pre-owned cars is the largest revenue generator for CARS24 in FY21, which has fetched 97% of the total operating revenues of the company. The annual revenue of CARS24 grew by 65-70% with an annual run rate (ARR) of $1 billion for FY22 as of December 2021, said Jangid.
CARS24 - Challenges
The market of used cars sure has a huge potential for growth and this is why most of the startups of today are eying this market. Therefore, CARS24 needs to fight the newcomers in the industry and tackle the existing challenges in the market from the older players. Furthermore, ensuring an adequate supply of used cars might also emerge as a challenge going forward.
CARS24 Shutdown of Supply-Focused Vertical
The company decided to shut down its businesses that strictly focus on supply in around 82 cities of India on December 10, 2021. The company would only be running its supply-side business verticals in the top 100 cities of India, as per an internal note exchanged between the co-founders of the country and its employees.
Cars24 layoffs
CARS24 has announced layoffs of around 600 employees. The used car unicorn marketplace follows many other Indian companies like Vedantu, Unacademy, Meesho, and more, which have already laid off a considerable chunk of their employees between April and May 2022. The main reason for the layoffs in these companies are cutting costs, fear of the dearth of fundraisers, and the apprehension of a supposed market recession that will take place soon. The Cars24 layoffs have taken place because the startup is presently looking forward to automatise operations and eventually cutting costs. This layoff of nearly 600 of its staff as announced by Cars24 on May 19, 2022, has made the company part with 6.6% of its total workforce.
Cars24 High-Level Exits
After layoffs, Cars24 sees numerous top-level exits that the startup will see in July 2022. This will include Kingshuk Sanyal, Vice President and Business Head of Cars24; Mrinal Sinha, Chief Human Resources Officer of Cars24 and Global CTO of Cars24, Jitendra Agrawal leaving the firm.
CARS24 - Competitors
CARS24 directly faces cut-throat competition in the market. It competes with companies that operate in the same segment and caters to the same target audience such as:
- CarDekho
- Droom
- Quikr Auto
- Olx
- CarTrade
- NDTV Auto
CARS24 - Funding and Investors
CARS24 has raised a total of around $1.52 billion to date. The company entered the unicorn club on November 24, 2020, by raising $200 million in a Series A round. It was led by DST Global with a post-money valuation of CARS24 being $1 billion. CARS24 was the second company to achieve unicorn status in the used car space.
CARS24 has seen its Series G round of fundraising led by Alpha Wave Global on December 20, 2021, where the used-car unicorn has raised $400 mn, which includes a cumulative debt funding of $100 mn.
CARS24 IPO
CARS24's Singapore entity has converted itself into a public entity on October 20, 2021, and is eyeing its upcoming IPO within the next 18-24 months. Henceforth, the company will be known as Global Car Group Limited, which was earlier recognized as Global Car Group Pte. Ltd. Furthermore, M.S Dhoni takes a partial exit from the company.
CARS24 - ESOPs
The leading used-car selling platform stated that it would be buying Rs 75 cr worth of shares from its employees as part of its ESOP plan. This single buyback is estimated is valued to be more than half of the amount that the company has sold to its employee shareholders as of now.
CARS24 - Partnerships
Here are some of the prominent CARS24 partnerships:
Bajaj Finance
CARS24 has partnered with Bajaj Finance Ltd. on December 30, 2021, to make used car financing easy and transparent, thereby facilitating a quick, frictionless and streamlined shopping experience
Poonawalla Fincorp
CARS24 and Poonawalla Fincorp Ltd. have come together to fulfil the consumer loans originating through CARS24. They have announced their strategic partnership on November 22, 2021
Driva
Australian online car financing company Driva has partnered with CARS24 on September 13, 2021, with an aim to extend a loan-matching system that will help the customers to check out with finance within five minutes
CARS24 - Future Plans
The CARS24 success story, at present, lies in the fact that the company has over 10,000 channel partners registered on its platform and it intends to increase the network to more than 20,000 partners over the next two years. The company also said that it has been actively launching operations in many Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
CARS24 is eyeing $2 billion worth of revenue by FY23. It is looking to bank on its international expansion plans in order to make it possible. The company has already disclosed its plans to expand in the Middle East, Australia, and Southeast Asia along with cementing its present position in the Indian market.
Furthermore, the used-car unicorn startup is also planning to diversify beyond the ‘cars’ marketplace that it currently is, into bikes. The company is parallelly looking to grow its used car financing platform with the help of the funds it recently raised.
“Our motive is to expand across India and give our customers a hassle-free selling experience. Any car owner can sell their car at a great price in less than an hour by driving down to the nearest CARS24 branch. To make it a reality, we’ve been investing heavily in making our tech more robust, as well as, convenient and friction-less for all”, added Vikram, co-founder of CARS24.
FAQs
Who are the founders of CARS24?
Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Gajendra Jangid and Ruchit Agarwal are the founders of CARS24.
What is the valuation of CARS24?
CARS24 has already turned a unicorn in November 2020. The present valuation of the company is estimated at $3.3 billion.
What is Cars24?
CARS24 is an online used car marketplace where you can buy and sell used cars.
Who is the owner of Cars24?
Cars24 operates under Global Car Group, which is the parent of the company.
When was CARS24 founded?
CARS24 was founded in 2015 by Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Gajendra Jangid and Ruchit Agarwal.
Which is the parent company of CARS24?
Global Car Group is the parent company of CARS24.
Who are the competitors of CARS24?
CarDekho, Droom, Spinny, Quikr Auto, Olx, CarTrade, and NDTV Auto are some of the competitors of CARS24.
What is the revenue of CARS24?
For FY 2021, CARS24 reported revenue of $371.3 million (Rs 2,717.9 crore), which reported its operating revenues to be around $424.7 million (Rs 3108.8 crore) during FY20.
How to sell cars online in India with CARS24?
CARS24 is the newest destination to sell cars. If you want to sell cars online in India with CARS24, then you simply need to:
Book an appointment by filling in all the information on the website, complete with the date and place of appointment
Visit the nearest branch and let the company officials inspect your ca
Cars24 will provide you with the best price for your car and will handle the documentation and the RC transfer.
Can you sell used cars in Bangalore via Cars24?
Selling used cars in Bangalore with Cars24 is easy and effective for all now.
Is CARS24 an MNC or not?
If you are wondering whether CARS24 is an MNC or not, then you should know that CARS24 is a startup and still not an MNC.
