RIDING OLD ROAD IN NEW FASHION

2015-formed Truebil has set an ambitious target to grow in the online marketplace for used cars. SURAJ KALWANI and SHUBH BANSAL, share their used car expedition.

How did Truebil come into existence?

Suraj Kalwani: We three friends, who lived in the same apartment and worked at Housing.com, understood a lot about start-ups. We joined Housing.com at a very early stage which eventually went onto become a very bigger company. All that experience helped us to know how an organisation grows over a course of time and what all it takes to evolve. It all started with our quest to buy a used car. This was when we reached a good position at Housing.com. During the quest, we discovered a set of problems while buying a used car in India. We realised all the existing platforms provide only the basic information like the place where the car is available and details of the person who is selling the car. We discovered two key problems in the space that is lack of appropriate platform which was unavailable (before Truebil) and secondly, there was no mechanism to verify if I am buying a trustworthy car from a trustworthy dealer or individual. Along with these problems, we also realised that the market for used cars since last five years has more than doubled. We realised that there is an opportunity to solve a problem in a very big market. So we decided to quit our job at Housing and post that in the month of March, we launched our product. Despite reaching out to a small set of users, the platform received significant attraction in three months after launching the product. They wanted to buy a car through us. Eventually, it paid off and we managed to raise funds for our company. Since the last two years, this organisation has grown and has 100 plus people in its team. We are active in Mumbai and Bangalore. We are launching in Delhi next month. So this has been our growth story till now.

What has been your value proposition?

Shubh Bansal: There are three phases in the buying of a used car which includes discovery, transaction and post sales. There is no player that has integrated all three steps. So the value proposition that we bring to the table is the discovery part. We have inspection report of each and every car. We curate good cars in the market. We basically reject cars which are not worthy of buying. So that is how we help buyers in discovering the right car to buy. Second phase is the transaction because used car industry is not a standardised product. So we have created an algorithm which helps people in valuing the real price of the car. Third is post sales transaction. After buying a car from a dealer or an individual, you realised that you need to comply with some rules which includes dealing with RTO or insurer, then they can avail that facility in our platform. We have integrated that process, providing end-to-end solution for the used cars and that is our core value proposition.

Who is your target audience?

Kalwani: Our target segment is anyone who is looking to buy a quality car in the least amount of time. As per our data, an average buyer in our platform takes 45 days to close a transaction, right from starting the discovery. Then there are some people who close within 30 days, and some who take more than 90 days.

At what rate is Truebil growing?

Suraj Kalwani: We are operationally breaking even in Mumbai. We have achieved this in the last six months, especially, after launching Truebil Direct. There has been tremendous growth of (almost) 20 per cent month-overmonth in terms of our net revenues. We aim to make that unit profitable soon. When we reach a certain amount of scale, we will become profitable in Mumbai. One can expect the same in Bangalore, Delhi and across all other cities. On an average, the typical amount of time we take to breakeven in a city is around six months.

Would Truebil venture into other businesses?

Bansal: Right now, we have learned from the market. We have seen companies growing to tremendous heights and then falling down because people lose focus. Right now, we are very sharply focused.

What is your budget for marketing activities?

Bansal: At marketing level, we do not want to invest in brand recognition in the market at this stage. We are working only on the performance marketing which means that we want to focus on the sales part of the business. We are spending in the marketing that will give us ROI (return over investments) in terms of sales and not brand in this stage. Our branding expenditure will increase after we go for second or the third round of funding.

What is the roadmap for Truebil?

Kalwani: By end of 2017, we will be present in three cities at full scale that is Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. We will double our scale in Mumbai. We will reach that same scale in Bangalore very soon and consequently Delhi as well. To that extent, we will be selling almost 200 to 250 cars per month from our inventory model and almost like 400 to 450 cars from our market place model. So that will essentially boil down to around 700 to 800 transactions a month across three cities. We expect to be profitable in Mumbai at that stage and breaking even in Bangalore and Delhi. This is our short-term plan for this year. In the next three years, we wish to be present in at least 12 cities where 70 per cent used car market is located. We also hope to use the next round of funding to penetrate deeper into the market.