Stepping On The Gas

Droom, an online marketplace for used and new vehicles, is the first to attract investments from Toyota in India

- Manu Balachandran

Sandeep Aggarwal certainly knows a thing or two about building million dollar companies.

After all, at 45, not many entrepreneurs can boast of having built one successful startup—a company worth over $1 billion—before leaving it to build another. Aggarwal is the co-founder of ShopClues, India’s fifth unicorn, and Droom Technologies, which, in recent times, has become a darling among investors.

This May, the Gurugram headquartered Droom, raised $30 million in an investment round led by the world’s second-largest automobile manufacturer, Toyota, and Tokyo-based venture capital investor Digital Garage, which values the three-year-old venture between $550 million and $700 million. The investment by Toyota is the first such in India by the Japanese carmaker.

“We were impressed that Droom has rapidly established its position as the largest online marketplace to buy and sell automobiles in India,” Toyota said at the time of investment. “Droom and we share the same vision, which is bringing trust and transparency to the transactions of automobiles.”

In all, Droom—an online platform that connects sellers and buyers of used cars, new vehicles, motorcycles, and even aircraft—has raised $95 million from investors, including Lightbox, Beenos, and Beenext. So far, the company has reportedly generated close to $700 million in gross revenue and $15 million in net revenue, and claims to connect over 2.5 lakh auto dealers in more than 500 cities across India.