They failed at furniture. They found used cars. Four IIT–IIM founders, $1.08 billion, and India's first auto-tech unicorn — now IPO-bound.
In 2015, Vikram Chopra and Mehul Agrawal left a furniture startup with one conviction: India's most broken consumer market was used cars. With IIT Bombay classmate Gajendra Jangid and Cornell-trained CFO Ruchit Agarwal, they built CARS24 — the platform that organised 230+ cities, attracted SoftBank, DST, and the Agnelli family, reached ₹6,917 crore in revenue, and is now preparing to list on India's stock exchanges. The decade-long story of India's most consequential auto-tech company.
Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal, Gajendra Jangid & Ruchit Agarwal
Co-Founders · CARS24
The Furniture Failure That Built the Car Company
FabFurnish was not a failure. Not exactly. Vikram Chopra and Mehul Agrawal built it into one of India's larger online furniture platforms before the inevitable consolidation of 2016, when Urban Ladder and Pepperfry's capital advantages made the mid-tier players' margins impossible. But the years inside FabFurnish taught Chopra and Agrawal something that no McKinsey case or BCG deck ever could: what it felt like to run a capital-intensive, inventory-heavy, logistics-dependent e-commerce business in India, where the last mile was never clean and the customer was never quite satisfied with the product she got versus the product she saw on screen.
The insight that animated CARS24 in 2015 was drawn directly from that experience — and from a parallel observation that Gajendra Jangid had been sitting on through nine years at Schlumberger. Selling a used car in India was genuinely, spectacularly broken. It meant weeks on classifieds, tyre-kickers who never showed up, buyers who offered 40% below value, cash transactions in parking lots, RC transfers that took months, and no assurance of anything. Ruchit Agarwal, arriving back from four years as a VP at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Los Angeles with a Cornell MBA and a CA behind him, had the financial infrastructure instinct the group needed. The four founders met through mutual friends and started brainstorming. Chopra and Agrawal wanted a market that was large enough. "Auto is very big in India," Ruchit later recalled Vikram saying. "Used cars was very attractive."
CARs24 launched in 2015 in Gurugram. The first product was deceptively simple: book an appointment, drive to a branch, sell your car in under an hour. Everything — inspection, pricing, payment, RC transfer — handled in a single visit. It was not complex technology. It was relentless operational excellence applied to a process that India's 30 million used-car sellers had never once experienced without pain.
DST Global, SoftBank, the $3.3B Peak and India's First Auto Unicorn
The investor who got there first was DST Global — Yuri Milner's firm, which had backed Swiggy, Byju's, and Ola, and which had been following the used-car segment globally. DST joined CARS24's Series A in 2015, a bet on both the market and on a founding team whose collective credentials — IIT Bombay twice, IIM Calcutta, Wharton, Cornell, McKinsey, BCG, Sequoia, BofA — were among the strongest assembled for a consumer tech company in India.
The unicorn moment arrived on November 24, 2020. Series E: $200 million, DST Global leading, valuation $1 billion. CARS24 was India's first auto-tech company to achieve unicorn status — reaching it in the middle of a pandemic that had, counterintuitively, driven demand for used cars as consumers avoided public transport and postponed new vehicle purchases. By September 2021, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Falcon Edge, and DST came back together for the $450 million Series F. By December 2021, the Series G at $3.3 billion made CARS24 one of India's top twenty most valuable private companies. Exor, the Agnelli family's investment vehicle — owners of Ferrari, Juventus, and The Economist — had been on the cap table since 2018. Tencent joined in 2021. The Fiat family and the SoftBank-DST global tech capital complex backing the same used-car marketplace in Gurugram said something about how seriously the world's most sophisticated automotive and technology money was treating India's pre-owned vehicle market.
At peak, CARS24 had 90% market share among online transaction platforms, 230+ cities, 10,000+ channel partners, and ₹6,917 crore in gross revenue by FY2024.
Team-BHP, CarInfo, the UAE Pivot and the IPO That's Coming
The FY2025 revenue decline — 10% to ₹6,233 crore — was explained by a deliberate strategic shift. CARS24 was moving from low-margin wholesale (B2B auctions to dealer networks) toward higher-margin retail (direct to consumer), and simultaneously shutting non-core businesses: Inspare (B2B spare parts), FourDoor (servicing), and AutoPilot (driver-on-demand). The restructuring cost 300+ jobs and looked painful from outside. Inside the company, it was called Version 2 — the profitable, IPO-ready incarnation of CARS24.
The acquisitions of Team-BHP (April 2025) and CarInfo (January 2026) were the content and data pillars of that version. Team-BHP is not just a forum — it is the institutional memory of every car ownership decision in India, with a community whose reviews, advice, and buying guides are trusted more than any manufacturer's marketing. CarInfo brings real-time vehicle compliance data — challan status, fitness certificates, ownership history — turning CARS24 into the platform car owners use not just to transact but to manage. In H1 FY26, transactions enabled by CarInfo grew 19x, generating ₹94 crore GMV.
The UAE, meanwhile, has become CARS24's first profitable international market — EBITDA-positive in H1 FY26. H1 FY26 adjusted revenue: ₹651 crore, up 18%. EBITDA loss: ₹162 crore, down 36%. Loan disbursements: ₹1,637 crore, up 38%. Co-founder Gajendra Jangid told Hindustan Times in September 2025: "We need to gain the confidence of not only customers but also investors." The IPO is on the cards, within 6–12 months of January 2026. Four IIT-IIM-McKinsey founders who started with a furniture company, pivoted to used cars, and built a billion-dollar institution are closing the loop.
"Traditionally, car selling or buying has been a tiresome process, and only 2 in 100 people own cars in India. Over the last decade, we have been working continuously toward fulfilling the dreams of millions of Indians to own a car — by transforming the customer's journey into something hassle-free, safe, and transparent. That is the CARS24 way."
— Vikram Chopra, Co-Founder & Group CEO, CARS24
Company Timeline
- 2013–15
Vikram Chopra (IIT Bombay, Wharton MBA, ex-McKinsey, ex-Sequoia) and Mehul Agrawal (IIM Calcutta, ex-BCG) co-found FabFurnish — India's online furniture marketplace — and run it for two years. They observe one key insight: India's largest market failures are in high-value, low-frequency, high-trust consumer transactions. Cars are the next obvious candidate. Ruchit Agarwal (Cornell MBA, VP at BofA Merrill Lynch in the US) returns to India in 2014, meets the group through mutual friends. Gajendra Jangid (IIT Bombay, 9 years at Schlumberger) completes the founding quartet.
- 2015
CARS24 is founded in Gurugram. The founding model: a C2B transaction platform where car sellers book an appointment, visit a CARS24 branch, and complete a sale — including price discovery, payment, and RC transfer — in under one hour. This solves a problem everyone had lived: selling a used car in India meant weeks of classifieds listings, untrustworthy buyers, unsafe cash transactions, and incomplete paperwork. DST Global participates in the Series A at launch.
- 2016–18
Rapid geographic expansion. Series B and C funding. Exor (the Agnelli family's investment arm, owners of Ferrari and Juventus) invests in the Series C (2018), alongside Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and KCK Global. CARS24 expands to 100+ cities across India. The used-bike vertical launches. CARS24 obtains its NBFC licence from the RBI in 2019 — creating CARS24 Financial Services and the ability to offer car loans.
- Oct 2019
Series D: $100 million from Sequoia Capital India, KCK Global, Unbound, and Moore Strategic Ventures. CARS24 now present in 130+ cities, 210+ branches. Monthly transactions: 13,500. Annual run-rate: 1.5 lakh vehicles. MS Dhoni makes an undisclosed angel investment. The company begins piloting the C2B2C model — buying cars from consumers, reconditioning them, and reselling directly.
- Nov 2020
India's first auto-tech unicorn. Series E: $200 million led by DST Global at a $1 billion+ valuation. CARS24 becomes the first used-car platform in India to achieve unicorn status. The pandemic had briefly threatened operations — CARS24 introduced home inspections and contactless transactions — but accelerated demand for used cars as consumers avoided public transport and delayed new vehicle purchases.
- Sep 2021
Series F: $450 million — $340M equity + $110M debt. Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global. Tencent participates. Valuation: $1.84 billion. CARS24 enters UAE (1,000 cars sold in first six months), Australia, and Thailand. The Singapore holding entity (Global Car Group Pte. Ltd.) converts to a public entity on October 20, 2021 — early IPO preparation.
- Dec 2021
Series G: $400 million led by Alpha Wave Global (Falcon Edge's renamed successor), including $100M debt. Valuation reaches $3.3 billion — the peak. Total funding: $1.08 billion. CARS24 announces ₹75 crore ESOP buyback for employees — one of the largest in Indian startup history at the time. More than 90% market share among online car transaction platforms.
- FY2024
Revenue peaks at ₹6,917 crore (FY2024), representing 25% YoY growth. Net loss: ₹498 crore. The company operates 4,000+ employees. Bengaluru R&D facility (second) opened October 2023. eChallan service launched. AI-powered pricing deployed across the platform. Retail's share of vehicle GMV growing rapidly; Loans24 loan disbursements scaling. Business restructured — Inspare (B2B spare parts), FourDoor (servicing), and AutoPilot (driver-on-demand) shut or wound down; 300+ jobs lost.
- Apr–Jan 2026
Team-BHP acquired (April 2025). CarInfo acquired (January 2026). 30-day/999km return policy introduced (November 2025) — a first for Indian digital auto retail. UAE business becomes EBITDA-positive in H1 FY26. H1 FY26: adjusted revenue ₹651 crore (+18% YoY), EBITDA loss ₹162 crore (−36% YoY), 85,000 cars transacted. IPO confirmed as 'on the cards' within 6–12 months. Franchise-led expansion of India operations underway.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the story of FabFurnish and why did Vikram Chopra and Mehul Agrawal leave it to start CARS24?
FabFurnish was an online furniture marketplace co-founded by Vikram Chopra and Mehul Agrawal that operated from approximately 2012–2016 before consolidation pressure from better-capitalised rivals. The experience gave both founders deep operational knowledge of high-value, logistics-intensive Indian e-commerce — and, crucially, a first-hand understanding of the structural problems in India's high-ticket, low-frequency consumer markets. When they identified that selling a used car in India was a problem even more broken than furniture, they pivoted. CARS24's founding model — guaranteed transactions, pricing transparency, single-visit sale — was a direct application of the customer obsession they had been forced to develop at FabFurnish.
What is CARS24 Financial Services and how big is the lending business?
CARS24 Financial Services is CARS24's NBFC (non-banking financial company), licenced by the RBI in 2019. It operates as the Loans24 vertical, providing used car loans to buyers on the CARS24 platform — both for vehicles purchased from CARS24 and, in some cases, from other sources. In H1 FY2026, Loans24 disbursed ₹1,637 crore in loans, up 38% YoY. Income from financial services stood at ₹215 crore in FY2025. The lending business is a core profitability driver for the IPO narrative — it carries higher margins than the vehicle trading business and creates ongoing customer relationships with car owners.
What happened to CARS24's international expansion — especially in Southeast Asia?
CARS24 launched in UAE (April 2021), Australia (September 2021), and Thailand. The UAE business has become the most mature international market and achieved EBITDA profitability in H1 FY2026 — its first international positive EBITDA. DP World's National Industrial Park in the UAE is hosting a ₹550 million CARS24 auto hub (announced November 2025) creating 200 jobs. Australia continues to operate as a marketplace for pre-owned vehicles. Thailand operations have been scaled back as CARS24 consolidates focus on higher-performing markets. The company transacted 85,000 cars across all markets combined in H1 FY2026.
Why did MS Dhoni invest in CARS24 and what happened to his stake?
MS Dhoni made an undisclosed angel investment in CARS24 as part of the Series D round (2019), becoming a brand ambassador and early endorser at a time when CARS24 was using celebrity trust to overcome consumer hesitance about online used-car transactions. Dhoni later made a partial exit from CARS24 — reported in the context of CARS24's Singapore entity conversion to a public entity in October 2021. His involvement helped CARS24 at a key brand-building phase in its history, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where his credibility carries exceptional weight.