NayaGaadi, a tech-based start-up that is helping automobile dealers to reach out to rural customers, has expanded its operations to Telangana, after starting operations in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

It opened an office at Madhapur here to engage with dealers, before expanding into rural areas.

The three-year-old Bengaluru-based start-up has so far sold 150 vehicles with an aggregate value of ₹6 crore.

“Setting up an automobile dealership needs huge investments. It is not viable for them to go deeper into villages to open outlets to sell their vehicles. But the rural market is under-served, offering huge potential for the automobile industry,” K Balaji, Founder of NayaGaadi, told BusinessLine .

The online marketplace is reaching out to villages by roping in agents. “We are taking kirana store owners, milk vendors and other retailers as agents to generate leads about prospective customers. We pass on the leads to the dealers on our network to take it forward,” he said.

With 200 dealerships into its network, the start-up offers test drives and all the help required in buying a vehicle. “We pay ₹400-500 each to our agents for all the successful conversion of leads. We enrolled about 1,000 agents,” he said.

Franchise route

In order to expand operations into rural areas, the firm is appointing franchises. “We have opened one in Nellore where we sold 65 out of the 150 vehicles we sold. In the next few weeks, we are opening franchises at Palamaner and Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.

The firm received a grant of ₹10 lakh from the Karnataka government last year.

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