Former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has invested an undisclosed quantity in pre-owned automobiles platform Spinny, the corporate stated in an announcement on Tuesday.
Moreover being a strategic investor within the firm, Tendulkar can also be Spinny’s lead model endorser, the assertion stated.
“Entrepreneurs of in the present day are creating options that cater to this ambition. The crew has adopted timeless values to attain excellence of their enterprise – belief, transparency and integrity,” stated Tendulkar.
Earlier this yr, Spinny had introduced its affiliation with Indian badminton participant PV Sindhu. Spinny’s prospects, together with the endorsers, will lead a collection of promoting initiatives over the subsequent yr, the corporate added.
“We try to instill Sachin’s skills in every thing we do and Spinny’s outlook to resolve actual buyer issues. Having him onboard with Spinny is totally heart-warming, and we’re proud to welcome our latest captain of Squad Spinny, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar,” stated Niraj Singh, founder and chief govt officer (CEO), Spinny.
Spinny, a used automobile retailing platform in India operated by Valuedrive Applied sciences Pvt Ltd, which is backed by Tiger World Administration, recently raised ₹1,849.45 crore ($248.6 million) as a part of its Collection E funding spherical, making it India’s thirty ninth unicorn (startups touching $1 billion valuation).
The funding spherical was co-led by present investor Tiger World and new investor Abu Dhabi Progress Fund, in keeping with regulatory filings, valuing Spinny at $1.8 billion. The corporate had stated that the contemporary capital raised shall be used for progress, growth, advertising and marketing and common company functions.
Gurugram-headquartered Spinny was based in 2015 by Singh, Mohit Gupta and Ramanshu Mahuar. It has 15 automobile hubs that function throughout eight cities — Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.
The present funding spherical comes after Spinny’s back-to-back Collection C and Collection D funding rounds this yr.
Earlier in July, Spinny raised ₹771.5 crore ($103.3 million) in a brand new funding spherical led by Tiger World. This got here simply months after it closed its Collection C funding led by Normal Catalyst earlier in April.
Spinny acquired rival Truebil in a cash-and-equity deal in August final yr. The acquisition got here simply months after the pre-owned automobiles platform had raised $43.7 million in its Collection B funding led by Fundamentum Partnership.
Previous to this, Spinny raised round $13.2 million in a Collection A spherical led by Elevation Capital and Accel in 2019. The platform raised $1 million (round ₹6.4 crore) in a seed spherical led by Blume Ventures in June 2017.
The broader used automobiles market has witnessed important motion in 2021.CarTrade grew to become the primary firm from the sector to drift its preliminary public providing (IPO) and listing on the inventory exchanges this yr whereas earlier this month Droom filed draft papers with the Securities Trade Board of India (SEBI) to go public.
Final month, Girnar Software program Pvt. Ltd. which operates on-line portal for brand new and used automobiles, CarDekho, additionally changed into a unicorn because it raised $250 million as part of its newest Collection E fundraise.
In September, Cars24 Providers, which had turned unicorn final yr, closed a $450 million round of funding led by DST World, Falcon Edge and SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund 2.
Supply: Live Mint