Spinny, an online platform for buying and selling pre-owned cars, on Tuesday, said it raised $1 million in seed funding led by Blume Ventures.
Indian Angel Network, through its member Hari Balasubramanian, and FreeCharge co-founders Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon also participated in the round.
The company said it will invest the proceeds in its technology platform and opening retail hubs across Delhi and the National Capital Region. The service is only present in NCR currently.
Unlike some of the popular marketplaces for used cars, Gurugram-based Spinny buys cars from sellers and holds them till the sale is made. It keeps the inventory (of cars) for a maximum period of 35 days, beyond which it disposes the asset to one of its partner dealers.
For this purpose, Spinny operates a network of retail hubs where a customer can review the car before buying. Spinny, which currently has two hubs—one each in Gurugram and West Delhi—plans to expand the network to at least four in 2017, co-founder and chief executive officer Niraj Singh said.
“Since we have complete control over the inventory, we are able to give a superior and end-to-end experience to both buyers and sellers,” Singh said. “We offer high-quality cars with complete transparency about car’s true condition and history, a five-day money back guarantee and added service warranty to our customers.”
“The used car market in India requires a very large reach across the country and the Spinny team has come up with a scalable model which will enable them to capture a decent market share within the next 12 months and establish Spinny as the most trusted platform for buying and selling used cars,” IAN’s Balasubramanian said in a statement.
The innovative model places Spinny against manufacturers-owned used-car retailers like Mahindra First Choice Wheels and Maruti True Value, among other, and not against online classifieds like Droom and CarTrade.com.
Singh explained the platform does not buy cars from its own capital, instead allows high net worth individuals to invest in buying cars through Spinny. The cars are registered in the name of the HNIs called “trading partners,” who gets a return on investment on a periodic basis.
Singh, along with his Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, batch mate Ramanshu Mahaur launched Spinny in June 2015. Like others, it started as a marketplace for used cars but it saw challenges with respect to coordination between buyers and sellers and ensuring quality. In September 2016, Spinny pivoted to the retailing model.
Source: Mint