DROOM BECOMES UNICORN AFTER $200 MN ROUND

NEW DELHI: Droom, an online automobile marketplace, on Wednesday said it has closed the first leg of its pre-IPO growth funding round of up to $200 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion.

In addition to several existing investors, new investors, including 57 Stars and Seven Train Ventures, participated in the first closing of the round. The company said it is pursuing a dualtrack for a possible initial public offering (IPO) and aims to be listed either on Nasdaq or in India in 2022.

The company said that it has seen strong growth in digital adoption during the pandemic besides an increasing consumer preference for ownership of automobiles. The company expects online penetration for automobile buying and selling to increase to 7% in 2025, up from 0.7% currently.

“Globally, we are seeing automobile buying and selling shifting online for both ICE (internal combustion engine) and electric vehicles. We think Sandeep and his team have built an impressive digital ecosystem that can revolutionize the automobile buying and selling experience,” said Gene Pohren, managing director of 57 Stars.

While business was initially impacted due the nationwide lockdown, Droom saw a strong recovery and by December its transactions had passed the all-time peak seen in February, said Sandeep Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Droom, adding that the business has been growing higher every month since then.