Online automobile marketplace Droom is targeting a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $2 billion and a net revenue of $55 million by the end of this calendar year. It will also raise another round of capital this year, Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder and CEO of Droom, said.

The company aims to grow its market share in India from 75 per cent to 85 per cent and is investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), and related products and services — for example, if you take a picture of a tyre, it (the technology) will tell you the size, type, and tread life.

Droom also has its own NBFC outfit, Aggarwal told BusinessLine . Fintech — loans and insurance — is one of the company’s fastest growing businesses right now, he further added. Droom also offers enterprise solutions such as fleet management and bulk insurance.

The company had earlier signed an MoU with Toyota Tsusho, the trading arm of Japanese automaker Toyota, to expand Droom in nine countries in South-East Asia — Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. Toyota Tsusho has also invested in Droom’s parent company.

“They (Toyota Tsusho) are interested in collaborating with Droom as we build a twenty-first century distribution platform,” Aggarwal said. “We may collaborate with Toyota or other companies when we expand in other regions,” he said. However, Aggarwal underlined that Droom will always remain solo in India.

Droom is already active in Malaysia (since October 2018) and Singapore (since December 2018). The company is in the process of ironing out its FDI approach in Thailand. Aggarwal said the regulations were easiest in Singapore, followed by Malaysia. “Right now, we have two products in Malaysia and Singapore — Orange Book Value and Droom Discovery. We have achieved good scale in Malaysia,” he said. Over the next 15 months, Droom wants to take its Orange Book Value (an algorithmic pricing engine to evaluate a used car’s value) product to 25-30 countries.

Hiring plan

The company has also started hiring its own vehicle technicians in six cities in India, apart from being an aggregator of 6,500 independent technicians all over the country.

Cars aren’t Droom’s only focus. “For us, cars are 60-70 per cent of the business, but we also have other products,” Aggarwal said.

Droom also deals in trading of used commercial vehicles such as trucks, buses, and will soon begin trading construction and mining equipment. Droom sold three trucks last month. Aggarwal sees a lot of long-term potential in used commercial vehicles thanks to the sector being largely informal.

The company also deals in buying, selling and renting private aircraft. “India has 220 private planes with 15-20 per cent capacity utilisation. We see business on the rental side during elections and weddings. You can rent a plane for ₹1.6 lakh an hour,” Aggarwal said.