CarDekho, Girnar Software-owned automobile portal, is the latest company to get unicorn status after raising $250 million. This funding round was led by Leapfrog Investments. US-based Canyon Partners, Harbor Spring Capital, Mirae Asset, Franklin Templeton along with existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Sunley House also participated in the round.
The round includes $200 million Series E equity and $50 million as debt. CarDekho is now valued at $1.2 billion and becomes a unicorn. CarDekho is the 33rd startup and also the 2nd car retailing platform to become a unicorn in 2021. It was valued at nearly $700 million in its previous funding round.
The company will use the fresh funding to expand its used car and financial services businesses. It also plans to expand its catalog to over 10,000 cars in the near future. The company is also looking to expand overseas to the Southeast Asian market.
CarDekho was founded back in 2008. CarDekho group now operates several auto sites such as CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, ZigWheels.com, and BikeDekho.com.
Investors are now taking interest in online car buying platforms. Last month, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and DST Global pushed $450 million in Cars24. Droom Technology also raised $200 million in a pre-IPO funding round in July. Spinny also raised $108 million in a Series D round led by New York-based Tiger Global Management.
