USED CAR RETAILING PLATFORM SPINNY RAISES USD 65 MN IN SERIES C ROUND LED BY GENERAL CATALYST

 USED CAR RETAILING PLATFORM SPINNY RAISES USD 65 MN IN SERIES C ROUND LED BY GENERAL CATALYST

 

Mumbai, Wednesday - 8th April 2021

Spinny, a full stack used car retailing platform in India, announces the closure of USD 65 Mn Series C funding round from new and existing investors. The round was led by silicon valley based venture capital firm General Catalyst - early backers of Airbnb, Stripe, Snapchat, Vroom, Cazoo, etc. Other new investors in the round include Feroz Dewan’s Arena Holdings, and Think Investments. In addition to these, the round saw participation from existing investors Elevation Capital (the Fundamentum Partnership, and others. The additional funding takes the overall funds raised by Spinny till date to more than USD 120 Mn.

Over the last 12 months, Spinny has constantly added multiple industry-first initiatives such as Spinny360 - interactive inventory viewing, Assured Buyback program - tenure based flexible car ownership, online booking, and doorstep test drives & delivery. In Aug’20, Spinny acquired Mumbai headquartered Truebil to solidify its position in the Indian used car market.

The newly raised capital will be deployed towards improving customer experience, expanding in new markets, strengthening technology and product capabilities, launching new business categories, and building teams across functions. While the auto market saw a dip in sales volumes during the COVID’19 lockdown, the lifting of the lockdown restrictions saw a major boost in car sales due to a change in personal transport preferences. Keen to capitalize on this strong tailwind, Spinny started operations in 4 more cities - Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad - in Jan’21, taking its presence to the top 8 cities of India (including existing cities - Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune). A portion of the proceeds from the round will also be utilized to provide exits to few seed and pre seed-stage investors of the company.

Commenting on this development, Niraj Singh, Founder & CEO, Spinny said “With the changing needs and expectations of the customer, Spinny’s full-stack capability allows us the control to set industry benchmarks in terms of a transparent and simple car buying and selling experience. We are super excited to see our existing investor General Catalyst double down on their conviction and lead this round. That's great validation and support for the work we are doing. We welcome onboard our new investors Arena Holdings and Think Investments, and thank our existing investors Elevation Capital (prev. SAIF Partners), Accel Partners, the Fundamentum Partnership, and others for their belief in our vision and tremendous support in building the platform. The proceeds from the new round of funding will enable us to further strengthen our quality and experience control capabilities and to experiment and build new product categories.”

Commenting on this development, Adam Valkin, General Partner, General Catalyst said, “At General Catalyst, we constantly seek out the best companies and the best entrepreneurs, wherever they are in the world. The used car market in India is huge and ripe for reinvention.  We believe Spinny is uniquely positioned to tap this opportunity--given their compelling leadership and their real market momentum. As long time investors, we've been impressed by how Spinny is reinventing every part of the buying process - injecting trust and safety into every aspect of the customer experience.”

Commenting on this development, Mukul Arora, Partner, Elevation Capital (prev. SAIF Partners) said, “Spinny has become India's most trusted used car brand and is on its way to becoming India's largest as well. It's heartening to hear customers describe the experience of buying a used car from Spinny being better than that of buying a new car. This has been made possible because of Niraj and the entire Spinny team's customer obsession and relentless execution. We are privileged to be their early partners and super excited to double down in this round.”

Commenting on this development Anand Daniel, Partner, Accel said “The used car market is known for its notoriety and lack of trust, often leaving a trail of highly dissatisfied customers. Using the full stack approach, Spinny has built the foundation of its business around trust and customer delight, enabling it to maintain quality consistency and deliver premium experience. The vision and rigour exemplified by Niraj and the team has made this possible, and we are certain that Spinny will emerge as a market leader in this space.”.

Commenting on this development, Ashish Kumar, Partner, The Fundamentum Partnership said: “We have been very pleased with the progress the company has made since our 1st Investment a year back and decided to re-invest along with the new investors in Series C. I have the privilege of watching very high quality execution by Niraj and the team at Spinny from close angles, and say with confidence that the combination of customer obsession and use of technology in a business which has largely remained offline is unmatched. I am very bullish on Spinny having a real chance at becoming one of India's largest consumer brands.”

About Spinny:

Founded in 2015, Spinny is a full stack used car retailing platform that aims to bring about transparency and convenience in the car buying/ selling process in India. Spinny operates across the entire value chain of pre-owned cars, embedding superior technology and processes to deliver a premium experience to customers. As a testimony of Spinny's commitment to transparency and quality, every car on the Spinny platform comes with a 200-point inspection check-list, 5-day money-back guarantee, and 1-year after-sales warranty. Currently, Spinny has 16 car hubs that operate across 8 cities - Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad cities.

Visit www.spinny.com to find your dream car.

About the team:

Spinny is founded by Niraj Singh (IIT Delhi Alumni), Mohit Gupta (Ex-Director, Flipkart) and Ramanshu Mahaur (IIT Delhi Alumni, Ex-Adobe). Niraj has had 2 successful entrepreneurial exits before he started Spinny and he was also a seed/early stage investor in start-ups like Tripoto, JustRide (Now Drivezy), Little Black Book, Rapido Bike Taxi, MyHQ, Fango (Now SellTM), ShaadiSaga, etc. The core team consists of many ex-founders and IIT/IIM/INSEAD graduates with experience in Management Consulting, E-commerce, marketplaces, and supply chain industries.

 

Annexure

1. How big is the used car market in India?

-          Approximately 4.5 Million used/pre-owned cars were sold in India in CY19 and the market is growing at 12% CAGR

-          For every new car sold, ~1.2 used cars are sold in India (in the USA this ratio is ~2.3)

-          Only ~18% of the market is organized, signaling a huge opportunity

2. The business model of Spinny - along with the benefits to buyers and sellers

-          Founded in 2015, Spinny is a technology-enabled full stack pre-owned car platform, that aims to bring about transparency and convenience in the buying and selling process of pre-owned cars. Spinny operates on an Online-to-Offline (O2O) model, wherein discovery of cars happens online via Spinny’s website (www.spinny.com) and the customers can either request a doorstep test drive and delivery or can schedule a visit to a Spinny car hub.

Spinny operates across the value chain of pre-owned cars, starting from carefully analyzing consumer demand patterns to plan for an ideal assortment mix, to selectively handpicking cars from the available market supply, and to refurbishing each car that is bought under it’s own guidance at self owned workshops.

Every Spinny car is handpicked, accident-free has a clean history, and on average only 1 out 5 cars pass through Spinny’s 200 parameter inspection checklist. All Spinny cars are listed on the website (www.spinny.com) where a customer can view the assortment of cars available for sale, filtered based on his or her requirement. Once a customer books a car, Spinny takes care of all the paperwork for the customer, includes free RC transfer, and provides financing options via tie-ups with reputed partners.

●        Benefits to buyers

○        Maintaining quality assurance on each and every spinny car by carrying a detailed inspection across 200 parameters

○        A hassle-free experience by adopting a fixed price strategy viz. no negotiations or haggles on the pricing unlike how traditional unorganized players operate

○        Providing complete transparency on the platform (www.spinny.com) for each car by providing a detailed inspection report covering each and every minor issue with the car

○        Delightful customer experience via door-step delivery and insurance renewals and service warranty,  5 days No-Questions-Asked money-back guarantee

○        Star price-engine that eliminates all layers of middlemen and dealers, and takes into account car conditions and market trends to provide the right price for the car

○        Premium customer service by taking care of all documentation requirements post-sale of the car

●        Benefits to sellers

○        Providing complete transparency via an instant offer under less than 30 minutes of inspection completion (if the car falls under Spinny criteria)

○        Delightful customer experience via door-step inspection and 10-day offer validity on the price quoted

○        Premium customer service by taking care of all documentation requirements post-sale of the car

○        Maintaining quality assurance by carrying a detailed inspection across 200 parameters

3. What is the USP of the platform?

-          Maintaining quality assurance on each and every spinny car by carrying a detailed inspection across 200 parameters

-          Providing complete transparency on the platform (www.spinny.com) for each car by providing a detailed inspection report covering each and every minor issue with the car

-          Star price-engine that eliminates all layers of middlemen and dealers, and takes into account car conditions and market trends to provide the right price for the car

-          Delightful customer experience via door-step delivery and insurance renewals and service warranty,  5 days No-Questions-Asked money-back guarantee

-          Premium customer service by taking care of all documentation requirements post-sale of the car

-          A hassle-free experience by adopting a fixed price strategy viz. no negotiations or haggles on the pricing unlike how traditional unorganized players operate

4. Important milestones achieved by Spinny

●        2019

○        Feb’19: USD 13.2 Mn Series A round closed backed by Accel & SAIF Partners and participation from existing investors Blume Ventures & Simile Ventures

○        Mar’19: Spinny expands to Bangalore with 1st car sold on 27th March

○        Oct’19: Launched operations in Hyderabad on a Fixed Pricing model

○        Dec’19: Spinny closes the year with 5x growth in cars sales

●        2020

○        Feb’20: USD 43.7 Mn Series B round closed backed by Fundamentum Partnership (India) Accel (Accel India & Accel Growth USA), SAIF Partners (India), General Catalyst (USA), KB Financials (South Korea), and a few angels.

○        Q1:: Launch of Pune business, Setup of self-operated workshop facility in NCR, providing Home delivery via Spinny Truck

○        Q2:: Providing Home Test Drive option, Dedicated Customer experience department setup

○        Q3:: Truebil Acquisition, Assured Buyback program - tenure based ownership program

○        Q4:: Spinny360, Fixed pricing model on Supply-side, Truebil category launched in NCR, Bangalore, & Lucknow

●        2021

○        Spinny Assured category expansion into Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, & Ahmedabad

○        Buy entirely online option

○        Bengaluru Self-Owned & Operated Workshop Facility Launch

Regards,