SHRIRAM AUTOMALL ACQUIRES BLUEJACK, AN ONLINE CAR AUCTION PLATFORM

Shriram Automall India Limited (SAMIL) which is backed by Shriram Group & CarTrade, has acquired BlueJack, an online car selling portal  in a bid to accelerate its offline auction market position with online used car sales.

Shriram Automal With On-boarding the online car auction  technology and team at an undisclosed amount  will be able to  address the growing need of the market, At present 70 lac used cars are being sold in India every year valuing the market at over ₹ 50,000 crore in 2022. With this acquisition, Shriram Automall targets to transact yearly over 1.2 million vehicles worth more than Rs. 30,000 crore.

Along with Shriram Automall’s physical & online bidding platforms, PAN India 10 million+ customers of SAMIL & its affiliates will get additional means of car selling through this deal .

Since its inception in 2016, BlueJack had auctioned more than 25,000 vehicles on its platform. It operates in Delhi with dealers from 10 states, including cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad. BlueJack buys cars using its proprietary pricing database & a live auction to calculate an offer within minutes & then sells the vehicles to one of its 5,000 empanelled dealerships. BlueJack is one of the largest players in the Delhi NCR market & using the Shriram platform, it will be implementing its experience and technology across the country.

Sameer Malhotra, CEO of Shriram Automall, said “ We are  excited to upgrade our offerings across India with BlueJack. We look forward to learn from them and share our own experience of operating at scale across 150 auction locations spread over 100 tier I, tier II and tier III cities. Together, we believe we can offer the best auction experience for our Indian market with innovative technology.”

“SAMIL’s consistent ability to create unique propositions for their diverse target market & their customer obsessed culture will provide a great launchpad for BlueJack as they scale. On-boarding BlueJack is a continuation of the SAMIL promise – “Certain, omni-channel transformation of the way India rides on wheels” he added.

Manish Kheterpal, Managing Partner of WaterBridge Ventures (which is lead investor in BlueJack) said “As the fragmented used car industry formalizes both on the consumer and dealers end, using a blend of technology, data, and old-fashioned human touch is the most effective way to solve for trust deficit and friction in the industry.” He further added, “Synergies between SAMIL and BlueJack are highly compelling, and together they would be a formidable force in this rapidly growing used cars industry.”

BlueJack is expected to fully integrate with SAMIL’s operations and group companies in first half of 2020. The founders & team will supercharge traction with their technology, data and movement of the joint user base to the new platform.

With this acquisition, Shriram Automall targets to transact yearly over 1.2 million vehicles worth more than Rs. 30,000 cr. In addition to this, there will be a lot of exciting synergies in play with SAMIL’s existing shareholders Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC), which is the largest player in used commercial vehicles finance & MXC Solutions (which operates the leading used & new car marketplaces CarTrade and Carwale). The Group counts a base of 10 million buyers across new & used vehicles, loans, insurance, among other allied products & services.

The Indian used car market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18%. It grew steadily in FY19, crossed the 4 million unit mark, while it is 1.2 times the size of the new car market, driven partly by increasing demand for used vehicles in Tier II and Tier III cities of India. It is further poised to reach 7 million cars per year by FY22.

About Shriram Automall India Limited (SAMIL):

Shriram Automall India Limited (SAMIL), an ISO 9001:2015 certified company is India’s first ever service provider to offer a well-organised and transparent platform for exchange of pre-owned commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, construction equipment, tractors, agricultural equipment, three wheelers and two wheelers. SAMIL is a part of Shriram Transport Finance Company Limited (STFC), India’s largest Small Business Finance Company (SBFC) and MXC Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. which runs both CarTrade.com and CarWale.com, India’s leading online auto marketplace. Every month, SAMIL conducts 3,000+ bidding events through its well-structured physical and online platforms, making it India’s Largest Offline and Online Vehicles Transaction Platform. The company provides online vehicle transaction services through CarTradeExchange.com, bids.samil.in and vehicle inspection & valuation facility through its 100% subsidiary Adroit Auto. SAMIL has been conferred with over 20 nationally recognised awards. In a brief span of over eight years, SAMIL Group has served 17,00,000+ customers by conducting 90,000+ bidding events at 85+ Automalls & 150+ bidding locations in India and transacted 15,00,000+ transactions worth 25,000+ crore. Presently, SAMIL gets over 8,00,000+ listing yearly on its platforms.