Droom to raise $60 mn for global expansion, developing new products

Online automobile marketplace Droom will raise up to $60 million in the next few months for global expansion and developing new products.

“We don’t need new funds to bridge the losses of the company. We are looking forward to raise new funds so that we can dominate the market share in future with new products and enhanced presence,” Droom founder and CEO Sandeep Aggarwal told PTI.

He added that Droom will look at raising about $40-60 million in a few months to fuel international growth and development of new products.

Founded in April 2014 in Silicon Valley, Droom is an online marketplace to buy and sell new and used automobiles and related services.

Last year, Droom had raised nearly Rs 200 crore from Beenext and Digital Garage. Prior to that, it had raised a seed funding of $1.5 million and $4 million in May and October 2014, respectively, followed by Series A round of Rs 100 crore in June 2015.

“We are looking at setting up operations in Indonesia by October-November this year and other countries in the South East Asian region will follow in the following months,” Aggarwal said.

He added that the company is exploring options of a joint venture and establishing its own subsidiary for setting up a base in the Indonesian market.

Aggarwal said about 15-20 per cent of Droom’s revenue is expected to come from international operations by March 2019 and eventually grow to 30-40 per cent as the company expands its international presence.

“Given the size of opportunity that India presents, the domestic market would continue to have the dominant share of our revenues even in the future,” he added.

Gross merchandise value

Droom currently has a GMV (gross merchandise value) of $400 million, which it aims to raise to $1.2 billion by March 2018.

“This will enable us to hit profits around the same timeframe,” Aggarwal said.

GMV is a term used in online retailing to indicate the gross merchandise value of the products sold through the marketplace over a certain period of time.

GMV is often used as a reference by start-ups to showcase the growth potential of the company and therefore, raise funds from investors.

However, investors are now more attentive towards factors like path to profitability and scalable business models rather than just GMV, which has prompted these new businesses to shift focus.