Mahindra First Choice Wheels Raises $15m; company valuation at $265m

Mahindra First Choice Wheels (MFCWL), part of the $19 bilion Mahindra Group, has raised $15 Million (Rs 100 crores) in a new round of funds from Silicon Valley-based Hedge Fund, Valiant Capital and Cox Automotive. The entire investment in the form of primary capital will be used to fund its growth over the next 18 months.

With the fresh infusion the company has increased its valuation to $265 Million (Rs 1,674 crore) (prior valuation $250 Million or Rs 1,579 crore). The company had last raised primary fund in March 2015.

The company claims it has has been the fastest growing automotive products and services provider and over a five year period it has achieved a monthly growth rate of nearly 3.5 percent. It further states that the revenues have grown nearly eight times in the last five-years.

“MFCWL is a company founded on the principles of innovation and entrepreunership and as one of the fastest growing companies in the Mahindra Group it is testament to both its own performance as well as the Group’s ability to create and nurture ventures with a focus on shareholder value”, said Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra & Mahindra.

The company has around 1,650 franchise dealers in over 800 towns. It is also aggressive on digital platforms in the areas of used vehicle auctions (eDiig), inspections (autoinspekt) and pricing analytics (indianbluebook). It also recently launched a new remote inventory management solution (Yard Management Solution – YMS), which is a wholesale inventory management platform with nearly 600 yards under management.

“MFCWL’s primary mission is to organize the used vehicle automotive industry ecosystem. MFCWL’s products and services are providing unprecedented transparency in all aspects of the used vehicle ecosystem – retail and wholesale. MFCWL is the only company which is truly hybrid with presence both on the ground and in the cloud and this hybrid strategy forms the underpinning of its mission”, said Rajeev Dubey, group President & CEO (after-market sector) Mahindra & Mahindra.

“We are excited about the latest primary investment in the company. Our plan in March 2015 was to achieve a network of 1,800 dealerships by 2020 but we have reached that network size in 2018, nearly 2 years ahead of the plan. With GST rates being rationalised, we want to utilise our deep technololgy expertise for retail and wholesale solutions to grow to a network of 5,000 dealers in the next five years”, said Dr.Nagendra Palle, CEO and MD, Mahindra First Choice Wheels.

The company will use the funds to grow its franchise dealer network and invest in new technology enabled products and services for the consumer online.