Softbank-backed Cars24 sees senior exits

Used car marketplace Cars24 Services Pvt Ltd, which is backed by investors such as Softbank, Tencent and DST Global,  will see three senior executives leave over the next quarter, people aware of the matter said. 

On Monday, the startup's global chief technology officer Jitendra Agrawal announced he will be leaving the company 'in the coming months'.     

Vice President and business head Kingshuk Sanyal and Chief Human Resources Officer Mrinal Sinha are also leaving the firm, two people aware of the development said.  

Agrawal joined Cars24’s global operations in 2021 to oversee the scaling of technology across different markets.    

Earlier, he worked at Hotstar and Lendingkart in senior technology roles.

"I joined Cars24 with a specific goal to help the team scale multiple countries at once - a particularly challenging task because, as an ecommerce company with complex execution, we built each country like an independent startup. We also did it all at once," Jitendra Agrawal said in a Linkedin post.   

In 2021, the company entered international markets such as Australia, UAE and Thailand. At the time, the company also announced plans to expand its presence across 6-7 countries in 2022. It was also eyeing expansion in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Malaysia.   

The company’s international business contributes 20% to the company’s overall revenue at present, co-founder Gajendra Jandid had said in an interaction in December 2021.   

Sanyal and Sinha’s departures are yet to be announced publicly. Cars24 spokesperson declined to comment on their exits.

Before joining Cars24 in 2021, Sanyal worked at tobacco company Godfrey Phillips India for over six years. At Cars24, he was responsible for scaling up the buyer side of the business, customer experience and post-sales among other tasks, according to his Linkedin.

Founded in 2015, the used cars unicorn has not been insulated from the prevailing funding winter that is knocking at the doors of the ecosystem. In May, VCCircle reported that Cars24 asked 600 employees to leave in India, even as the used cars platform pushed ahead with its international expansion plans. All of the employees asked to go were from India after the annual appraisals, a person said on condition of anonymity.   

The company raised $300 million in equity and an additional $100 million in December 2021, at a valuation of around $3.3 billion. 

Cars24 helps consumers buy, sell and finance used cars by leveraging technology. Cars24’s refurbishment lab allows the company to test used cars before selling them to new customers. It plans to exit December with seven refurbishment labs in India, and looks to add more of this infrastructure in Tier 2 cities, over the next few months. 

It reported consolidated net sales of Rs 2,754.9 crore in the fiscal year 2020-21, down from Rs 3,023.3 crore in 2019-20, which in turn was almost double its FY19 net sales of Rs 1,654.61 crore. Alongside, it has trimmed its losses over the years.   

The company reported a loss of Rs 191.5 crore in FY21, narrower than Rs 291.6 crore in FY20 and Rs 325.6 crore in FY19.