Droom, a Gurugram-based online automobile marketplace, is the latest Indian startup to join the coveted unicorn club. The startup’s valuation clocked $1.2 billion after closing its first pre-IPO round at $200 million. Droom is aiming to go public by listing either at the NASDAQ or in India by 2022.
Sandeep Aggarwal founded Droom in 2014 after he left Shopclues. Based out of Gurugram, it is an online marketplace to buy and sell new and used automobiles. After the new investment, the seven-year-old startup is now valued at $1.2 billion, up from about $500 million in October 2018.
The startup provides verified listings for buyers and tools to view, schedule, negotiate and communicate with the seller. Sellers are provided with tools to manage their listings and estimate prices and dispute issues.
57 Stars, Seven Train Ventures and several existing investors financed the new round, said the startup, which counts Toyota and Lightbox among its early backers and had raised about $125 million before the new investment.
“Droom’s current annual run-rate is $1.7 billion for GMV and $54 million for net revenue. The company remains on track to touch a GMV of $2 billion and net revenue of $65 million in CY2021. With the current scale, technology-oriented business, and operational efficiency, Droom is nearing profitability,” the company said in a brief statement.
After closing the funding round, Droom has become the 17th Indian startup to enter the unicorn club as high-profile investors double down on their bets in the world’s second-largest internet market.
“Over the past seven years, we have invested millions of dollars and thousands of human hours in building a full technology-based end-to-end transactional marketplace for buying and selling of automobiles online,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, founder and chief executive of Droom.
“We have developed the complete technology-based machinery starting from first-mile services such as OBV, ECO, and History to mid-mile services like loan and insurance and last-mile services like doorstep delivery. Droom has been on a steady growth trajectory after Covid. While the automobile is the largest retail category, it is the least penetrated online. In a post-pandemic world, we expect automobile buying and selling to shift online rapidly,” he added.
