Toyota Tsusho's investment also includes a memorandum of understanding with online automobile store Droom, to facilitate the platform's expansion in various South East Asia markets
New Delhi: Droom, an online automobile store, on Thursday announced a $30 million Series-D investment jointly led by Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a unit of Japan’s automobile major Toyota Group, and existing investor Digital Garage.
Tokyo-headquartered Toyota Tsusho Corporation is engaged in trading automobile raw materials, along with their manufacturing, logistics and sales.
The firm’s investment also includes a memorandum of understanding with Droom, to facilitate the platform’s expansion in various South East Asia markets, Droom said.
Ellison Investments, an Asia-based investment manager, and several existing backers of Droom participated in the latest fund-raise. Droom raised Series-C investment of Rs2 crore from Hong Kong-based Integrated Asset Management Asia Ltd last year in July.
Droom is also backed by Lightbox, Beenext, Beenos and several independent investors from China and Hong Kong, and has so far raised over $20 million.
“We and Droom are sharing the same vision, which is bringing trust and transparency to the transactions of automobiles. We believe that this partnership contributes the establishment of highly transparent transaction of automotive the wholesome development of auto market of any developing countries, by combining Droom’s technologically advanced platform and our various automotive business experience of all over the world," said a statement by Toyota Tsusho Corporation quoted in Droom’s press release.
Droom was launched in 2014 by Sandeep Aggarwal, a co-founder of e-commerce firm ShopClues. The firm is registered in Singapore as Droom Pte Ltd.
Droom’s platform serves as an online marketplace to buy and sell cars and two-wheelers. Over the past few years, it has branched into allied services like fair value calculator, roadside assistance and auto loans in a bid to increase revenue.
The company said it will use the proceeds from latest round towards initiatives to grow its market share in India, technology expansion and launch in international markets.
“The newly raised funds will be used to further strengthen Droom’s domination in the online automobiles marketplace segment in India, where it currently owns nearly 70% market share, as well as to make its ecosystem service tools more scalable and to expand its international presence," the company said.
