BeepKart, a full-stack online retailer of used 2-wheelers, has raised a $3 million seed round led by Stellaris Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures.
The round also saw participation from angel investors including tech founders like Varun Alagh (Mamaearth), Sahil Barua (Delhivery), Vivekananda Hallekere (Bounce), Kunal Shah (CRED), Ramakant Sharma (Livspace) and Rajesh Yabaji (Blackbuck).
Founded by Hemir Doshi and Abhishek Saraf, BeepKart is taking a tech-first approach to address the trust deficit in the massive used 2-wheeler market.
BeepKart aims to bridge the wide gap in experience between buying and owning new and used 2-wheelers. Unlike classifieds platforms, vertical-focused BeepKart provides used 2-wheeler buyers the required confidence on price, quality and after-sales service.
As per Google’s Auto Gear Shift India 2020 report, 90% of new 2-wheeler buyers go online from initial research to final purchase. This behaviour is seen across price points and in metros and towns.
On BeepKart’s platform buyers can conveniently browse, select and book their preferred used 2-wheeler right from their mobile phones.
BeepKart Co-founder and CEO Hemir Doshi said, “2-wheelers form over 80% of India’s vehicle base, and there are 7 times as many used 2-wheelers sold every year as used cars. Buying a scooter or motorcycle is one of the key purchase decisions by the Indian consumer, yet the market suffers from a lack of rules
and a great trust-deficit.”
“In our view, 2-wheelers are more amenable to online sales than cars and the decision to buy and sell is made more quickly. We are seeing good early traction for our buyer focused online brand and offering,” he added.
The business is currently live in Bengaluru, and will expand to 3 more locations over the next 12 months. BeepKart will engage throughout the buyer’s ownership lifecycle by providing reliable spare parts, services, accessories, loan and insurance for the used bikes through network partners.
The raised capital will be used to build a world-class engineering team to deliver on its tech and product first goals.
Stellaris Venture Partners Partner Ritesh Banglani said, “Used vehicles represent one of the largest retail categories globally with virtually no online penetration in used 2-wheelers in India. Globally, very large companies have been built selling used cars online. I believe the largest vehicle commerce companies in India will sell bikes and scooters, not cars. With Hemir and Abhishek’s experience in scaling and running operationally intensive businesses, we are confident BeepKart will be the largest company in this category.”
