Exclusive: Used cars marketplace BlueJack set to secure pre-Series A funding

Delhi-based Four Wheel Group (India) Pvt. Ltd, which owns online used vehicles marketplace BlueJack.in, is set to raise Rs 6.4 crore (around $923,000) in a pre- series A funding round led by investment firm WaterBridge Ventures, two persons close to the development told TechCircle.

Singapore Angel Network and a few angel investors also participated in the round, they added.

The company’s website states it will soon launch operations and will initially start out in Delhi-NCR.

In October 2017, the startup had raised Rs 1.6 crore from a group of individuals and Quintillion Media Pvt. Ltd, which runs online news portal The Quint, one of the people said. Raghav Bahl, the founder of Quintillion Media, confirmed his firm’s investment in the startup.

BlueJack will compete with Droom, CarDekho and CarTrade, one of the persons mentioned above said on condition of anonymity.

WaterBridge Ventures declined to comment on this investment. BlueJack’s co-founders Wishal Rampal and Sahil Chaudhry couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.

WaterBridge Ventures invests in early-stage startups and has backed at least 10 tech-focused companies across various sectors. Its most recent investments were in LetsMD, a fintech startup in the healthcare space and ed-tech startup Doubtnut. Its earlier investments include online lending platform ZipLoan, hyperlocal discovery and rewards platform Magicpin and online learning startup Unacademy among others.

Deals in the used car marketplace sector

Other players in the online used automobiles selling space include Truebil and horizontal people-to-people platforms such as OLX and Quikr.

In February last year, Truebil had secured $3 million (about Rs 20 crore) in a follow-on series A funding round from China-based Venture Capital Fund Shunwei Capital.

In the same month, CarTrade had raised Rs 370 crore ($55 million) in a funding round led by existing investor Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government’s investment firm, and an undisclosed US family office.

In June last year, pre-owned cars platform Spinny, which is operated by Gurgaon-based Yellow Drive Technologies Pvt. Ltd, had raised $1 million (around Rs 6.4 crore then).

In July 2017, Droom raised $20 million in a Series C round led by Integrated Asset Management (Asia) Ltd and Digital Garage Inc. Existing investors Lightbox India and Beenos Asia Pte. Ltd, as well as institutional investors and family offices from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan also participated in the round.