Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek has led a $55 million investment in India’s CarTrade, a listings site for selling automobiles in the country.
CarTrade didn’t confirm the identity of other investors that partook in the round, other than that it included a contribution from “a large US family office.”
CarTrade acquired rival Carwale in late 2015 to grab a dominant position in India. The two services combined claim 15 million customers per month and 200,000 cars auctioned per year. It plans to use the money to expand into auto-finance options and provide more services. That strategy will include acquisitions, the company confirmed.
“The funds raised will be used to drive growth through continued focus on strengthening our dealer and customer services and evaluating potential acquisitions,” founder and CEO Vinay Sanghi said in a statement. “CarTrade is aggressively looking at the market for used car finance with less than 8 percent of used cars sold being financed through an organized financier.”
This new financing takes CarTrade to over $240 million from investors. Its previous round of $145 million closed in January 2016 and was led by Temasek and March Capital. The startup also counts Warburg Pincus and JP Morgan among its backers.