Indian used car marketplace Cars24 has closed down its operations in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia as it refocuses its attention on core markets in India and Australia.
The decision has reportedly impacted around 100 employees in Indonesia, where the company only launched operations in the last year. Cars24 is an online platform that allows customers to sell their used cars, competing with other Indian companies such as Spinny, Droom, CarTrade, and OLX.
The move to exit these markets comes almost a year after the startup laid off 600 employees in a bid to cut costs and automate operations. At the time, reports also suggested that the company halted its expansion plans in the UAE, the Middle East, Thailand, and Australia, as it sought to reduce its burn rate by half to $10m per month to extend its runway.
The startup last raised $450m in funding in September 2021 from investors including DST Global, Falcon Edge, and SoftBank Vision Fund, bringing its total funding to around $1.3bn. The Indian online used car market is highly competitive, but despite this, it is experiencing significant growth, driven by online players attempting to streamline what has traditionally been an unorganised market.
However, even as Cars24’s total income doubled to INR 6,008.2 Cr in the financial year ending March 2022, compared to INR 2,775.9 Cr in FY21, its losses widened by 29.5% YoY to INR 248 Cr in FY22. Nevertheless, CEO Vikram Chopra noted that the company would prioritize its focus on its core markets of India, Australia, Thailand, and UAE to continue driving growth.
Cars24 was founded in 2015 by Chopra, Gajendra Jangid, Ruchit Agarwal, and Mehul Agrawal. The company’s investors include Alibaba, Tencent, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Exor Seeds, among others. Despite the funding winter currently gripping the Indian startup ecosystem, the country’s online auto marketplace continues to experience rapid growth as players seek to tap into the largely untapped used car market.
