Talented Two Brothers Of Jaipur Cardekho Startup Success Story

The automobile industry is very haphazard. Generally, people find themselves highly confused and hesitant while purchasing any car. Apparently, the references from friends and families are not good enough to make an informed decision. The duo brothers of Jaipur initiated a change in this scenario. They created a one-stop site that not only relates to car purchases but also to the car peripherals. Thus, Cardekho.com has successfully transformed this tedious task into an easy one.

Early Life:

The lack of transparency in the car industry led to the origin of Cardekho. The smart and talented brothers of Jaipur understood the need of the hour and developed this brilliant web portal. Amit Jain and Anurag Jain, the two founders of Cardekho graduated from the premier institute of IIT Delhi. They spent a good 8 years in the corporate world where they were associated with TCS and Trilogy.

Entrepreneurship:

Those corporate years nurtured a love for technology in Amit. Both the brothers took a drastic step and decided to quit the corporate world and head back to their hometown. Although they had a well-settled jewelry business, they decided to set en route a different direction and create something spectacular of their own. Call it family inspiration, but Amit’s initial inclination was to start an online jewelry store, which was later curbed due to the ground realities of that area. Turning back wasn’t an option for the two brothers. Thus, with the experience of the corporate years, they decided to start their own IT outsourcing company, GinarSoft.

 Every dream needs perseverance and hard work, which the duo brothers never lacked. They initiated work by sending emails and notifications to all prospective big clients. But success doesn’t come that easy. In the hope of some urgent response, they started sending off emails to all the possible clients in the IT industry. Small steps do lead to larger successes though. Though they received their first order of a meager 50,000 INR, soon their fates turned. Heaps of orders started coming in which led them to expand their employee base to a roaring number of 40 by 2007. With enough money in their pocket, they were now ready to invest in their own project. Thus, these prior successes led to the birth of CarDekho.​

Rise:

The initial idea of Cardekho emerged from a visit to the AutoExpo. Call it fate or an initial interest; the brothers seemed to be intrigued by the hidden potential in this industry. With their prime focus being customer satisfaction, they launched their venture CarDekho. The discreet and detailed information educated the customers of every technical and non-technical detail of a car. This elaborate information base attracted heavy traffic and thus in no time, CarDekho became a one-stop site for car-related deals.

Benchmarks of CarDekho’s success ladder:

• 4 visitors in a span of 4 years.
• 5 crore unique visitors in 2012.
• A record of 1.7 lakh car sales
• 600 employee base
• With the onset of September 2014, they had acquired Gaadi.com, which led to a roaring increase in traffic.
• In a mere span of a month, their android application landed up to 100,000 downloads.

Joint Venture and Other Investments:

• Released their first TV advertisement in September 2014.
• Co-sponsored Big Boss-Season 8
• Co-sponsored premiering of the Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya on Colors Channel.
• Exchanged a 20% share, with Sequoia Capital, which amounted to USD 15 million.
• Invested in automotive financial services like car loans and insurances.
• Collaborated with BankBazaar.com
• Collaborated with Berkshire Insurance.

Achievements:

• They were adorned with the title of” Best Automotive Website of 2009.
• They also received the award of “Best Car Website of 2012”.
• Their immense popularity granted them the title of “Most popular website of 2012”
• They have also endowed the award “Website of the year India 2011& 2012”

Future Plans:

Their future target is to raise good old USD 40-50 million against a pre-investment of 1500 crores. They also aim to surpass INR 500 crores in revenue collection. Their success and their claim are apt enough to grant them the title of “true stars of the online automobile industry.”