Online automobile startup Droom has announced that it raised $30 million in Series D funding round, led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation (member Toyota Group) and co-led by Digital Garage of Japan. They are joined by Ellison Investments, an Asia-based investment manager, as well as many existing investors and a number of prominent institutional investors and family offices from China, Hong Kong and SE Asia in this round of fund raising.
The newly raised funds will be used to further strengthen Droom’s domination in the online automobiles marketplace segment in India, where it currently claims to own nearly 70% market share, as well as to make its ecosystem service tools more scalable and to expand its international presence.
The tech-led platform will also invest heavily in further developing its Machine learning and AI capabilities and build 100x larger scale.
Droom also signed an MOU with Toyota Tsusho Corporation to expand internationally in SE Asia, reinforcing its global attractiveness in the markets that are characterized by trust deficit, high cost of capita, highly fragmented seller base, and loose rules and regulations.
Speaking on the development, Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Droom, said, “We are delighted to have a major investor like Toyota Tsusho Corporation backing us in this round. This partnership will play a major role in Droom’s journey ahead by helping us realise our growth potential, both in India and internationally. We are fortunate to have long standing support of Lightbox, Beenext and Beenos for believing in us very early on and supporting us relentlessly last 4 years. On the backdrop of Droom’s upcoming international expansion, we are excited to partner with Ellison Investments for helping us expand our investors base in Asia.”
Through the latest funding and the on-going support of investors, Droom aims to cement its position as India’s foremost online automobile marketplace. In the past three years, it claims to have been generating close to $700 million in gross revenue and $15 million in net revenue with the listed GMV of $3.5bn.
It currently has close to 250,000 auto dealers in more than 500 cities across India on its platform and 27.3 million monthly visitors. The company aims to double its gross merchandise value to $1.4bn by end of 2018 and $3.5bn by 2019. The company plans to go for an IPO by end of 2019.
“We were impressed that Droom has rapidly established its leadership position as the largest online marketplace to buy and sell automobiles in India. We and Droom are sharing the same vision, which is bringing trust and transparency to the transactions of automobiles. We believe that this partnership contributes the establishment of highly transparent transaction of automotive 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,” Toyota Tsusho Corporation, said in a statement.