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Automobiles marketplace start-up Droom has partnered with Japanese car-maker Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a member Toyota Group, to enter the South East Asian market.
The company will leverage Toyota’s dealership network, inventory and leadership for their international expansion. The partnership will focus on South East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam that have more than 25 million internet population and has fragmented dealership network.
Droom has raised Series D funding of $30 million from consortium led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation and Digital Garage of Japan. Other investors include Ellison Investments and existing and institutional investors from Hong Kong and South East Asia. With this, the total funding raised is $95 million.
Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Droom, said the company will have a local partner in each of these regions. The business model and services launched will be based on the demand in each region, he added.
Aggarwal said the funding will be used for developing AI and machine learning tools, strengthening their existing products and services and presence in India and overseas.
The company has four marketplace formats – B2B, B2C, C2C and C2B – and has three pricing formats – fixed price, best offer, and auction. Droom has five service tools such as Droom Credit for auto financing, smart buying tool Discovery, used vehicle history report History, door step auto inspection tool Eco and pricing tool Orange Book Value.
On companies expansion plans, he said Droom will be operational in Indonesia and either Thailand or Malaysia by the fourth quarter of 2018. Aggarwal said by mid-2019 they will be operational in five countries.
Major challenge, he said, is in offering localised services such as a choice of language and right manpower.
Apart from overseas expansion the company is in talks with cab aggregators in India and overseas to expand its taxi services, which was launched recently. The company has sold 400 cars to cab aggregators so far.
The company’s net revenue stood at about ₹110 crore and it has gross merchandise value of ₹4,200 crore. Aggarwal said the company will be profitable in a year.
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