Ratan Tata invests in CarDekho.com
Without disclosing the amount of investment, the firm says it will use the funds for marketing initiatives and hiring
Mumbai: Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Group, has made a strategic investment in Jaipur-based Girnar Software Pvt. Ltd that owns and operates the automobile classifieds website CarDekho.com.
“We are glad that Ratan Tata believes in our vision of growth for the company. We are looking to use the funds for marketing initiatives and hiring people," Amit Jain, co-founder of the company, said over the phone. He did not comment on the amount of investment.
The development was first reported by The Times of India on Monday.
This has been the fourth personal investment made by Ratan Tata in the e-commerce space. He had made investments in snapdeal.com, urbanladder.com (online furniture) and bluestone.com (online jewellery) in 2014.
Girnar Software had raised $50 million for cardekho.com in its second round of funding, Mint reported on 9 February. The funding was led by Hillhouse Capital with participation from Tybourne Capital and Sequoia Capital. With this investment, Girnar Software is now valued at $300 million. Girnar had raised $15 million from Sequoia Capital in November 2013.
The size of the online retail industry in India is poised to be $10-20 billion by 2017-2020, according to a report by industry body Assocham and PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd, a consultancy. The report states that this growth is expected to be led by increased consumer-led purchases in durables and electronics, apparels and accessories, besides traditional products such as books and audiovisuals.
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