Toyota, others invest $30 million in online auto marketplace Droom

NEW DELHI: Japanese auto giant, Toyota has made its first investment in an Indian startup by co-leading a $30 million funding round in online automobile marketplace Droom, along with Tokyo-based incubator Digital Garage. Ellison Investments as well as Southeast Asia-based family offices also invested in this round.
Droom was founded in 2010 by Sandeep Aggarwal, who also started e-commerce portal Shopclues.The Gurugram-based company, which helps users buy and sell new and used automobiles, says the funds will be used to strengthen its market share and invest heavily in machine learning and AI. With this latest funding, Droom will expand internationally in south east Asia through Toyota. It competes with the likes of CarDekho and CarTrade.
"Droom has seen tremendous growth over the past three and half years in terms of adoption by buyers and sellers, number of categories and listings, geographical presence, GMV and transactions. This partnership will play a major role in Droom’s journey ahead by helping us realise our growth potential, both in India and internationally," said Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Droom.
The company claims to have a 70% market share in the online automobile marketplace generating close to $700 million in gross revenue and $15 million in net revenue.
"We believe that this partnership contributes to the establishment of highly transparent transaction of automotive and 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 prepared statement.
With a team size of over 300, Droom has raised close to $95 million in six rounds of funding from investors including Lightbox, Beenext, and Beenos.