Ping An Completes First Venture Investment in India to Enhance Auto Services Ecosystem
HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Dec. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) of Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) announced that Ping An Global Voyager Fund, its overseas investment arm, has led a US$70 million Series D in Indian auto technology company CarDekho, alongside Sequoia Capital and Hillhouse Capital. This is Ping An's first venture investment in India.
CarDekho Group, founded in 2008, is one of India's leading autotech companies. It has successfully digitized the auto ecosystem in India and is aggressively pursuing the vision to own the personal mobility space by helping customers across their entire car buying and ownership journey. CarDekho Group currently has operations in India, Indonesia and Philippines and operate leading Indian auto sites such as CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, ZigWheels.com, BikeDekho.com, InsuranceDekho.com and PowerDrift.com.
Based in China, Ping An is one of the world's largest financial services companies. Ping An has been investing heavily in technology and building five ecosystems covering financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services, and smart city services. The Group is the majority shareholder of China's largest auto portal Autohome (NYSE: ATHM).
"Auto services are a core component of Ping An's 'finance + ecosystem' strategy, reflected in our majority shareholding in Autohome in China. We have been extremely impressed with the business CarDekho has built in India, particularly its success in developing different types of financial services offerings to address car buyers' needs," said Donald Lacey, Managing Director and COO of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund. "The Global Voyager Fund's stake in CarDekho represents Ping An's first venture investment in India, and we are delighted to partner with an organization of CarDekho's caliber."
"It's a matter of great pride for us at CarDekho that Ping An is choosing us as their first Indian investment. As a leading full stack autotech company in India, we at CarDekho are committed to help consumers throughout their car buying journey. Our unique auto ecosystem provides us a competitive edge in reaching out to consumers and engage with them through our various transaction models at one platform. With the latest fundraise, we will continue to strengthen our domestic and international businesses and will aggressively work towards becoming the largest personal mobility player in the country," said Mr Amit Jain, CEO and Co-Founder, CarDekho Group.
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