India’s CarTrade buys out European rival CarWale

Online auto classified platform CarTrade has acquired rival CarWale from leading European digital publisher Axel Springer.

Car-Trade.com, which is owned and operated by Mumbai-based MXC Solutions India Private Limited, did not disclose the value of the deal. This is seen as the largest consolidation in the segment, according to industry experts.

Market sources put the size of the deal at around Rs600 crore. While CarTrade has a clear focus on used cars, CarWale's market focus is on sale of new vehicles. The merged business aims to become a leading player in both new and used cars.

"The two companies have more than 3.2 crore combined visits in a month, work with about 9,000 new and used car dealer partners and connect car manufacturers with car buyers," a statement from CarTrade said. The platforms list more than 2.25 lakh used cars for sale.

"The internet today is the single-largest source of consumers for car  dealers and Car-Trade and CarWale jointly contribute a majority of all online sales to car dealers. We firmly believe that the combination of CarTrade and CarWale will further strengthen our leadership in the new and used cars space. We can now direct our joint resources towards developing better products to enhance user experience," CarTrade's founder and chief executive officer Vinay Sanghi said.

The investors in CarTrade include Warburg Pincus, JP Morgan, March Capital and Epiphany ventures.

CarTrade had in October last year raised Rs180 crore in a round led by Warburg Pincus with participation of Canaan Partners and Tiger Global.