Mobile P2P marketplace for used cars Zoomo raises $5M from existing investors SAIF Partners

Zoomo, a P2P mobile marketplace for buying and selling used cars, has secured Rs 32 crore (around $5 million) in funding from existing investor SAIF Partners.

Bangalore-based YoungMonk Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates Zoomo, will use the money to expand operations and to improve technology and product leadership, as per a company statement.

"This is a huge market with significant room for growth. We are looking to disrupt an industry which is already worth $10 billion. We will only grow from here," said Arnav Kuma, co-founder.

Founded in July last year by Arnav Kumar and Himangshu Hazarika (both IIT Kharagpur alumni), along with Aniket Behera (IIT Bombay alumni, Zoomo is a mobile-based P2P marketplace that helps users buy verified, cars from individual sellers. The trio had earlier co-founded Sokartik, a web app to create visual, narrative stories.

The firms says that it lists only genuine cars from verified individuals as it has an algorithm to identify individual sellers. The company also does manual verification prior to getting every potential seller listed. Zoomo also helps in carrying out various activities such as certification, background checks, paperwork, loans, and insurance for the buyers.

"E-commerce is booming but car transactions have remained an opaque, non-standardised experience. We are out to standardise the market, allowing users to transact with the same confidence as ordering from their favorite e-commerce store," he added.

Last December, the startup had raised Rs 6 crore (around $1 million) in seed funding from SAIF Partners.

"We are confident of our association with a promising platform like Zoomo. It solves the dual issues of trust & pricing while making used car transactions and, therefore, holds tremendous potential. By removing dealers and middlemen and ensuring that buyers & sellers get the best prices, we are certain that Zoomo will scale tremendously in the days ahead," Mukul Singhal, Principal at SAIF Partners said.

The firm claims that it sells 200 cars a month in Bengaluru. It has listed over 1,800 cars, and has more than 1,200 active subscribers currently. It also sends in-time alerts and personalised recommendations to subscribers.

SAIF Partners manages over $1 billion of investments in India. It has a portfolio of over 30 companies, including MakeMyTrip, JustDial, HomeShop18, One97 and BookMyShow.

Several firms in the online domain facilitate used-car sales.

In January, Jaipur-based Girnar Software Pvt Ltd, the company behind auto portal CarDekho.com, raised $50 million (around Rs 307 crore) from Chinese investment management firm Hillhouse Capital and Hong Kong-based hedge fund Tybourne Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investor Sequoia Capital. Tata Group's chairman emeritus Ratan Tata also invested in the firm in his personal capacity.

Although CarDekho.com focuses on listing new cars, last year it acquired Naspers Group-owned Gaadi.com, which focuses on used cars.