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Came from a small town in UP and built a 25,000 CR company. 1. Coming from the small town of Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, Vikram Chopra made everyone proud when he got selected for dual engineering at IIT Bombay. But his hunger did not stop there as he landed a cushy consulting job at McKinsey, followed by a 2-year stint at the investment goliath - Sequoia. But he wanted to do more. 🤔 2. He started Fabfurnish as an online retailer of furniture and home decor. After three years of struggle, he could not scale and decided to move on. Vikram was down but not out. As he thought of more ideas, one finally stuck with him—his love for CARS. 🚘 3. He saw a massive inefficiency in India’s used car market. Selling a car was frustrating—dealers offered low prices, negotiations were tedious, and transactions lacked transparency. Identifying this gap, he envisioned a tech-driven platform to simplify the process. 👇 4. In August 2015, he co-founded an online C2B platform with three co-founders, enabling car owners to sell directly to verified buyers without any middleman. He ensured instant offers, quick payments, and hassle-free RC transfers, making selling a car seamless. CARS24 was born. 🚀 5. Vikram had started but India’s used car market was fragmented, with local dealers dominating and consumers preferring offline transactions. He tackled this by building a pan-India dealer network, integrating AI-driven fair valuations, and introducing free RC transfers to reduce fraud risks. And the idea worked. ✅ 6. In 2015, Cars24 raised ₹32 crore in Series A from SAIF Partners and Accel and expanded across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. Within three years, it had sold over 100,000 cars with 50 branches in 12 cities. By 2018, it raised ₹340 crore from Sequoia Capital, Exor Seeds at a valuation of 1740 CR. 💰 7. As the funding came, so did the competition. OLX, Droom, and Mahindra First Choice came with large offline distribution. CARS24 countered this with instant payments and doorstep services, making it more convenient than offline. It also launched B2B auctions, allowing dealers to bid for cars in real-time. But Vikram wanted to do more. 🤔 8. He launched the ‘Sell Your Car in One Visit’ promise with MS Dhoni as its ambassador. But still, it was making just 4% commission in car sales, so CARS24 expanded into used bikes and commercial vehicles, launching in UAE, Australia, and Southeast Asia. It scaled to 1.5 lakh cars yearly and 2270 CR in revenues. And the big news came. 👇 9. In 2018, it raised 1510 CR from DST Global and became the first unicorn in the used Cars business. 🦄 10. Today, Cars24 grosses over 2,00,000 monthly transactions, 15 million app downloads, and a 200-city presence. Clocking a revenue of 6917 CR, It has a record-breaking 65% market share in the space for used cars. ➡️Who would have thought that a boy from the smallest town of Rae Bareli in UP would build a 25,000 CR company?