CarTrade Launches Venture Arm, Plans Rs 750 Crore Investments

CarTrade Tech, a multi-channel auto marketplace in India, has announced the launch of CarTrade Ventures, a new venture arm that will invest up to Rs 750 crore ($100 million) over the next 5-7 years in acquisitions and investments in the Indian automotive space. The funding has been generated through profits the company has generated over the years and funds available to it. The investments will help CarTrade Ventures acquire and invest in companies that offer differentiated services and technology in the automotive space, including auto finance, leasing, insurance, servicing, car ownership, electric vehicles and clean energy. The start-up also plans to invest in new-age tech start-ups, particularly those in domains such as augmented reality, artificial intelligence and visualisation.

The company, which claims to be one of the few profitable auto marketplaces in India, has already acquired three companies and made a strategic investment in one start-up. CarTrade Tech aims to enter new markets, deploy new technologies for existing customers and offer a great online auto shopping and ownership experience. The companies it acquires will leverage CarTrade Tech’s resource base and customers to scale its offerings.

CarTrade Tech was founded in 2009 by ex-Mahindra First Choice chief executive officer (CEO) Vinay Sanghi and former eBay India head Rajan Mehra. Since then, it has become a publicly traded company and received 35 million average monthly unique visitors in quarter three the financial year 2023 (FY23). The start-up has a presence at more than 200 physical locations and logged a consolidated profit after tax of Rs 14.04 crore in the quarter that ended December 2022, against a total income of Rs 115.85 crore in the same quarter.

CarTrade Tech's new venture arm comes after the company announced in December 2021 that it would deploy up to $100 million to invest in auto-tech start-ups. It is unclear whether the latest announcement is related to the earlier fund or whether a new venture has been set up to accommodate the old fund. The company's shares closed 1.95 per cent lower at Rs 522.75 on the Bomabay Stock Exchange (BSE) on 23 February 2023.