Droom, Indian online automobile transactional marketplace, has announced the closing of its Series B funding in a round led by BEENEXT from Singapore and Digital Garage from Japan. Majority of existing investors are participating in the current round including Lightbox and BEENOS. The fresh funds will be used to further strengthen the dominating position in the online market for automobile in India, continue to make platform more scalable and functionally rich, and expand internationally. The amount raised for the new round of funding is significantly higher than the Series A, Droom raised in July 2015.
Droom with a presence in 142 cities has the largest reach in the hyper-local category in India and will use the fresh funding to further grow in the local markets and expand presence across international geographies. The latest round will see the Gurgaon headquartered company use the proceeds to create a larger sales team, adding more business lines, boosting its technology platform with a focus on creating a richer consumer experience.
Speaking on the development, Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Droom, said, “We have been witnessing tremendous growth over the past 16 months in terms of adoption by sellers, number of categories and listings, geographical presence in 142 cities across in India, and GMV/transactions. Droom is permanently changing how automobiles should be bought and sold online by creating tools for 21st century for trust, transparency, pricing and convenience. We are very delighted that BEENEXT and Digital Garage have liked Droom journey so far and the future potential and decided to lead the round.”
Speaking on the occasion, Teruhide Sato, Founder and managing partner, BEENEXT said, “Droom has swiftly established its leadership position as the premium digital marketplace to buy and sell automobiles in India. Sandeep is an exceptional founder and his vision, grip on marketplaces and ability to drive innovations are second to none. We supported him and Droom fairly early on and have seen tremendous growth and disruption Droom has brought to the market.”
Adding to the same, Kaoru Hayashi, President and Group CEO, Digital Garage, added, “What Sandeep and the entire team at Droom have been able to do in such a short span of time is extremely impressive and is the main reason why we have handpicked Droom for investment. We are confident that our investment, coupled with its differentiated approach and disruptive business model, will continue driving its spectacular growth trajectory in the future as well.”
Through the funding and the ongoing support of investors, Droom, aims to cement their position in India as the ultimate automobile marketplace. To materialize this, the company will also see an infusion of funds towards marketing, business development, customer acquisition (operations) and new category expansions.
About Droom:
Founded in April 2014 in Silicon Valley, Droom is Indian online marketplace to buy and sell new and used automobiles and automobile services. The startup has taken a completely innovative and disruptive approach to building trust and pricing advantages for buyers.
The current experience of buying and selling an automobile is completely broken, antiquated and full of pitfalls. Droom offers a truly 21st century experience in buying and selling automobiles. With its technology-driven marketplace approach, the company enables transactions between buyers and sellers by bringing transparency, building trust and mitigating information asymmetry. Droom is a mobile-first marketplace with a presence on three platforms i.e. Android, iOS and Desktop.
Droom is amongst the fastest growing consumer Internet companies in India with 47K+ B2C sellers, 23.6K products, 57K+ listings, Rs. 2,326 Crores+ in listed GMV, 1.74 Mn+ FB Community members (highest for any automobile community in India) and over 2.47Mn+ downloads for mobile apps.
