NEW DELHI, October 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --
Raises $50 millionin last 3.5 years from Japan itself, adding highest number of investors and quantum of capital
Droom, India's first, largest and pioneering online automobile transactional marketplace, recently closed its Series E funding round raising $30 million, led by the Family office of Japanese-based investor Joe Hirao, Founder, ZIGExN. The online marketplace has raised $125 million in total funding including the current round, which is the highest in the online automobile marketplace segment in the country. The current funding round highlights Droom's growing appeal among global investors, specifically from Japan, who have invested $50 million in the organization in the last 3.5 years. Toyota Tsusho Corporation led $30 million Series D funding round co led by Digital Garage and signed a MoU to promote international expansion for the platform.
Droom's association with Japan goes back 3.5 years, during which period, a slew of investors from Digital Garage, Beenos to TTC and now ZIGExN, have continued to invest in Droom. In fact, Droom is among the top companies to have received the highest amount of investment from the most number of Japanese investors.
Commenting on the successful Series E funding round, Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Droom said, "Over the past 3.5 years, Droom has established itself as the unchallenged leader in the online automobile transactional platform and the continued faith of global investors underlines this success. Investors from Japan are known for their keen understanding of business potential and market viability of an emerging enterprise, and their continued trust further strengthens our belief in the offerings we develop. The current Series E funding gives an immense fillip to us as we aim to simultaneously strengthen and diversify our services such as inspection, Droom Credit, C2C and C2B marketplace formats, enable a smooth online transaction and provide more competitive terms and interest rates to customers through Droom Credit."
Joe Hirao, Founder, ZIGExN added, "Droom has done a fabulous job in creating India's largest and 21st century online automobile transactional platform by leading the journey of reinventing pre-owned automobile transactions. The way they have created robust technology-based ecosystem services tools to address the fragmented and unorganized used automobile market, loan and insurance, and multiple marketplace formats such as B2B, C2C, C2B and C2C is very innovative and we are very happy to be a part of this great journey."
The tech-led platform will also invest heavily in further developing its Machine Learning and AI capabilities for its vast portfolio of products. Besides this, Droom is also looking to invest in advanced, emerging technologies such as IoT for its ECO segment and Blockchain for its credit facilitation services.
The company aims to double its gross merchandise value to $1.4bn by end of 2018 and $3.5bn by 2019. Droom's algorithm and historical pricing-based valuation technology has captured the imagination of both buyers and sellers in the segment. The platform has already captured 75% of the online automobile market share in India, generating close to $750 million in gross revenue and $20 million in net revenue with the listed GMV of $6bn.
