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ParkMate raises $1.2 Mn led by Cactus Partners

EntrackrEntrackr · 7m ago
ParkMate raises $1.2 Mn led by Cactus Partners
Medial

Car parking solutions provider ParkMate has raised $1.2 million in a new round led by early growth-stage venture fund Cactus Partners. Existing backers such as Venture Catalysts and the Marwah Group Family Office have also participated in the round. According to ParkMate, the funds will be used to ramp up its growth trajectory, invest in its team to win business, streamline its operations, and continue to innovate new solutions. Founded by Dhananjaya Bharadwaj, ParkMate offers smart parking solutions to shopping malls, office complexes, and Hotels in the corporate segment and to parking contractors for government parking spaces. The firm’s exclusive DaSH (Drop & Shop) service claims parking within 2 minutes for car owners at shopping malls, arcades, and business complexes. It counts as DLF, Phoenix Mills, Fun Republic, the UP, and Telangana Governments. Smart cities are another sizeable market for ParkMate. It directly competes with Park+, Get My Parking, Park Smart, and Parky, among others. Park+ is the largest player in this segment. In June, the company ventured into the on-demand driver services segment with Drive+, positioning it as a potential competitor to DriveU, Drivers4Me, Driverzz, PickMyCar, Namma Driver, and Cars24. This marks the eighth investment by Cactus Partners since January 2021. The firm has invested in companies such as Lohum Cleantech, Kapture CX, Vitraya Technologies, AMPM Fashions, Auric, Indigrid Technology, and Rubix Data Sciences (exited).

CARS24 elevates Himanshu Ratnoo as CEO of used cars India

EntrackrEntrackr · 6m ago
CARS24 elevates Himanshu Ratnoo as CEO of used cars India
Medial

Cars24, an e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles, has elevated Himanshu Ratnoo to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Used Cars India. The announcement was made by Vikram Chopra, founder and CEO of CARS24, in an internal email to the organization. In his new role, Ratnoo will oversee the company’s C2B and retail operations, focusing on scaling growth and driving innovation. Ratnoo’s initiatives include the development of franchise models, lead monetization strategies, and a revamped approach to luxury car transactions. CARS24 offers services like buying, selling, loans, insurance, driver on demand, FASTag, challans, scrapping, and more, making it the only super app in this segment. Apart from this, through CARS24 Financial Services, the company offers various vehicle lending products to customers. Following a modest growth in FY23, Cars24 registered 25% year-on-year growth to Rs 6,917 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2024. However, the firm’s net losses stood at Rs 498.4 crore with an adjusted EBITDA of Rs 318.8 crore in FY24. Cars24 has not raised external funding in the last three years. In December 2021, the company raised $450 million at a valuation of $3.3 billion. Its major investors include Alpha Wave, SoftBank, Tencent, and DST Global.

Park+ reports Rs 131 Cr revenue in FY24 with stable losses

EntrackrEntrackr · 8m ago
Park+ reports Rs 131 Cr revenue in FY24 with stable losses
Medial

Following over 2.5X revenue growth in FY22 and FY23, Gurugram-based Park+ reported a 36.5% year-on-year revenue increase for the fiscal year ending March 2024. Despite its rapid expansion, the five-year-old company maintained tight control on expenses as its losses increased only 4% in the last fiscal year. Park+ revenue from operations grew to Rs 131 crore in FY24 from Rs 96 crore in FY23, its consolidated financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies show. Founded by Amit Lakhotia, Park+ provides car cleaning, parking solutions for homes, malls, and offices, fine (challan) payments, insurance management, and car service. It also expanded into ancillary offerings like FASTag issuance and EV charging networks. The sale of services which includes commissions of FASTags, rental of access control, advertisement, valet service, and parking formed 80% of the total operating income which increased by 44% to Rs 104 crore in FY24. The rest of the collections came from the sale of products such as access control, FASTtag, radio frequency tag, and others. Employee benefits was the largest cost center for Park+, accounting for 41% of the overall expenditure. This cost increased 29.5% to Rs 101 crore in FY24 from Rs 78 crore in FY23. This includes Rs 27 crore as ESOP cost. The cost of materials consumed including the procurement of FASTags, radio frequency and related materials grew 65.7% to Rs 58 crore in FY24. Advertising, legal, technology, conveyance and other overheads took the overall expenditure to Rs 245 crore in FY24 from Rs 202 crore in FY23. A sharp rise in ESOP costs and material expenses resulted in a 4% increase in losses, bringing them to Rs 103 crore in FY24. Its ROCE and EBITDA margins stood at -72% and 68% respectively. On a unit level, it spent Rs 1.87 to earn a rupee in FY24. Park+’s total current assets were recorded at Rs 160 crore in FY24 including the cash and bank balances of Rs 102 crore. Park+ has secured $54 million in funding across various rounds and was valued at around $355 million during its Series C round in December 2022. According to the data intelligence platform TheKredible, Peak XV is the largest external stakeholder, followed by Matrix and Epiq Capital. Its founder and CEO Lakhotia owns 45% stake in the company. Park+ competes with Get My Parking, Park Smart, and Parky, among others. In June, the company ventured into the on-demand driver services segment with Drive+, positioning it as a potential competitor to DriveU, Drivers4Me, Driverzz, PickMyCar, Namma Driver, and Cars24. The segment, while high on activity and startups, remains in its infancy, with rules, technology and users still evolving. One feels the truly ‘killer’ use case is still not in hand, even as volumes continue to rise. However, much like fuel deregulation that allowed a huge rise in credit cards powered by discounts on fuel purchases, somehow, the idea of parking or toll charges driving the same sort of opportunity escapes this writer. Most of the aggregation also remains nowhere close to an ‘essential’ for a driver, further placing retention at risk, and driving up user acquisition costs. Could this be a case of problems that seemed big only in the rarefied world of well off VC’s? It won’t be the first time (or the last) VC’s confused a problem they face with a broader market demand. We should know soon enough over the next few quarters.

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