Vehicle marketplace Droom closes Series E round, to invest in AI and blockchain

Droom, an online marketplace for new and used vehicles, has closed its Series E funding round at $30 million (Rs 220 crore at current exchange rates), a company statement said.

The round was led by the family office of Japanese investor Joe Hirao, who is the founder of multi-business firm ZIGExN, the statement said.

The Series E fundraising takes the total that the company has mobilised since inception to $125 million, the statement said. 

The online marketplace will use the fresh capital to develop Droom Credit, expand its doorstep inspection services and for its certification services Orange Book Value, History, ECO and to build its consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-business marketplaces. 

The company also plans to invest the money for tech advancements including developing its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities for its products. 

“Droom is also looking to invest in advanced, emerging technologies such as IoT for its ECO segment and blockchain for its credit facilitation services,” said founder and chief executive Sandeep Aggarwal. 

The fresh fundraise comes shortly after the company in May raised $30 million (Rs 204 crore) in a Series D round led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation and existing investor Digital Garage of Japan.

Droom had received $20 million last July in a Series C round led by Integrated Asset Management (Asia) Ltd and Digital Garage. In July 2016, it had raised an undisclosed amount in a Series B round from venture capital fund Beenext, Digital Garage, Lightbox, Beenos, and others.

Aggarwal said that the latest round of funding will help the company meet its growth targets and scale up technology.

According to the statement, Droom aims to expand its operations to 100 cities across the country while also eyeing international presence. The company claims it has a 75% share of the online automobile market in India, generates close to $750 million in gross revenue and $20 million in net revenue.

The Gurugram-based company aims to double its gross merchandise value to $1.4 billion by the end of 2018 and $3.5 billion by 2019. The company plans to go for an IPO by 2020, the statement added.

In the online used-automobiles segment, Droom competes with Truebil, Zoomo, CarDekho, Carwale and CarTrade. Online classifieds platforms OLX and Quikr, too, operate in the segment.