Carwale
Encyclopedia
CarWale is an automotive website
and a registered brand
owned by Automotive Exchange Private Limited in India
. The website was co-founded by Mohit Dubey and his three friends in October 2005. In Nov 2010 Axel Springer AG
and Living Media
(India Today Group) acquired 52.1% and 18.3% stake respectively in the company. The company operates out of Navi Mumbai
, Maharashtra
.
CarWale.com services include new car research, on-road price of new cars, used car valuation guide and used car classifieds. CarWale also facilitates new car sale through tie-ups
with manufacturers, dealers
, financier
s and insurance firms.
in Bhopal. Before starting Veracious Solutions, they had studied together in Sainik School Rewa
(different batches) and had worked as colleagues in another startup in Bhopal. In 2003 Arun Sahlam and Tufail Khan also joined the company as co-founders. Arun had studied with Mohit and Gaurav in Sainik School Rewa and was an IIT Madras
pass out. Tufail and Mohit had done their MBA together from Goa University
. The tech startup did quite a few projects for Madhya Pradesh
Government
before realizing that it's not working out. In early 2005 Mohit acquired a used car dealer website contract and while working on the project, the team realized the potential of an automotive website in India. In Oct 2005 the team decided to give up all the ongoing projects and founded CarWale.
In 2006, Seedfund, an Indian early stage venture capital
firm invested in CarWale. In the same year, the 8-member CarWale team permanently moved to Mumbai. In 2008 US
venture fund Sierra Ventures invested in CarWale.
The Madhya Pradesh state government had no defined policies or laws for telemedicine at that point of time. They had to dump the idea due to lack of support from the state government. However, they didn’t give up as it was a complete and motivated team with Tufail and Arun joining the founding team full time in Jul 03. To survive the down swing in 2003, the company made all kinds of customized software from Less Paper Office to Land Record Management Systems to School Information Management Systems. Meanwhile, they also contributed to some of the India’s leading e-governance projects like Gyandoot and ‘Gyan Sanchar’ that included consultancy to IBM Canada. All this was good to keep going but wasn’t enough to satisfy their drive to make a decent contribution and having no pockets (never mind them being deep!) It seemed impossible to work with government agencies with fairly lengthy tender-driven processes and even longer payment credit periods.
In Feb 2005, Mohit made his way to Mumbai to look for new ventures for sustainability. He wasn’t sure what he would find in the nation’s financial capital. He got introduced to a leading used car dealership in Mumbai quite by accident. The dealership wanted to get a used-car inventory management software developed. Despite the fact that the dealership had almost finalized a Mumbai-based software-development firm for the software, Mohit convinced them to give him the opportunity. He bagged the Rs 10,000 order (almost half the competition’s price) and spent two months at the dealership to understand and successfully implement the software. The development team back in Bhopal did a good job with this software. The customized software solution later became a standard software product and was termed as ‘Trading Cars’. Without an office or a team to support him in Mumbai, Mohit sold ‘Trading Cars’ dealership to dealership. At one point of time, every Mumbai used car dealership worth its salt was using ‘Trading Cars’.
The understanding of ‘Trading Cars’ and his interactions with used car dealers made Mohit realise the fact that the car buying and selling process isn’t smooth. He learnt that consumers rarely come out of the car buying experience feeling good about it. He also believed that the Indian car consumer deserves much better than what he gets. To improve the process, the company tried to connect all the Mumbai dealerships with a web interface so that they can trade among themselves and serve customers with better inventory. However, none of the dealerships used it and we realised our mistake in just ten days. We then decided to bring all the used car stock of multiple dealerships directly to car buyers and save them the effort of going from dealership to dealership. Thus, CarWale was launched on Oct 2005 with 500 dealers’ used car listings. We kept on adding free tools, services and information for new and used car consumers and today we are India’s most visited online automotive portal.
To know how we are doing at the moment, please read About CarWale.
PS: Three of our four founders, Mohit, Arun and Gaurav, share their alma-mater, Sainik School Rewa. Also, Mohit and Tufail are batchmates for their Master’s in Management degree from the University of Goa.
‘Trading Cars’ was coded and authored by Rajeev and Banwari, who are batchmates and have been best buddies from their engineering days. This duo also delivered all the core applications at CarWale. Banwari heads content and research and Rajeev heads technology.
rally in Navi Mumbai. In February 2010, CarWale took a Tata Nano
on a 7000km drive covering the entire Golden Quadrilateral
.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
and a registered brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
owned by Automotive Exchange Private Limited in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The website was co-founded by Mohit Dubey and his three friends in October 2005. In Nov 2010 Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG
Axel Springer AG is one of the largest multimedia companies in Europe, with more than 11,500 employees and with annual revenues of about €2.9 billion. The Company is active in a total of 36 countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland...
and Living Media
Living Media
Living Media is an Indian media conglomerate based in New Delhi, India. It has interests in magazines, newspapers, books, radio, television, printing and the Internet.- History :...
(India Today Group) acquired 52.1% and 18.3% stake respectively in the company. The company operates out of Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai is a Planned Satellite City on the west coast of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was developed in 1972 as a twin city of Mumbai, and is the largest planned city on the planet, with under the jurisdiction of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and a total area of . Navi Mumbai...
, Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
.
CarWale.com services include new car research, on-road price of new cars, used car valuation guide and used car classifieds. CarWale also facilitates new car sale through tie-ups
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
with manufacturers, dealers
Car dealership
A car dealership or vehicle local distribution is a business that sells new or used cars at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. It employs automobile salespeople to do the selling...
, financier
Financier
Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...
s and insurance firms.
History
In 2002, Mohit Dubey and Gaurav Verma founded Veracious Solutions Private Limited, a software startupStartup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
in Bhopal. Before starting Veracious Solutions, they had studied together in Sainik School Rewa
Sainik School Rewa
Sainik School Rewa is one of the 24 Sainik Schools of India. It is a purely residential school for boys. The medium of instruction is English. Established by Government of India on 20 July, 1962 at the sprawling estate known as Yuvraj Bhawan which belonged to Maharaja Martand Singh Judeo,...
(different batches) and had worked as colleagues in another startup in Bhopal. In 2003 Arun Sahlam and Tufail Khan also joined the company as co-founders. Arun had studied with Mohit and Gaurav in Sainik School Rewa and was an IIT Madras
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
The Indian Institute of Technology Madras is an engineering and technology school in Chennai in southern India. It is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the Government of India...
pass out. Tufail and Mohit had done their MBA together from Goa University
Goa University
Goa University was established in 1985 and merged with the Centre for Post Graduate Instruction and Research of the University of Bombay that functioned at state-capital Panaji or Panjim. Goa University offers both graduate and post-graduate studies and research programmes...
. The tech startup did quite a few projects for Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
Government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
before realizing that it's not working out. In early 2005 Mohit acquired a used car dealer website contract and while working on the project, the team realized the potential of an automotive website in India. In Oct 2005 the team decided to give up all the ongoing projects and founded CarWale.
In 2006, Seedfund, an Indian early stage venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firm invested in CarWale. In the same year, the 8-member CarWale team permanently moved to Mumbai. In 2008 US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
venture fund Sierra Ventures invested in CarWale.
The carwale story
Mohit and Gaurav started their entrepreneurial journey to connect villages with better medical services using telemedicine in 2002. Based in Bhopal, the only capital they had was a PC and no cash at all. Interestingly, they rented office space in the premises of their first client and opened the bank account after they received the first cheque. Banks normally don’t allow you to open an account with cheque, but it was somehow negotiated! The client received the printed proposal only after the cheque was encashed and a printer was bought. The first lesson was learnt - everything is negotiable and one must negotiate!The Madhya Pradesh state government had no defined policies or laws for telemedicine at that point of time. They had to dump the idea due to lack of support from the state government. However, they didn’t give up as it was a complete and motivated team with Tufail and Arun joining the founding team full time in Jul 03. To survive the down swing in 2003, the company made all kinds of customized software from Less Paper Office to Land Record Management Systems to School Information Management Systems. Meanwhile, they also contributed to some of the India’s leading e-governance projects like Gyandoot and ‘Gyan Sanchar’ that included consultancy to IBM Canada. All this was good to keep going but wasn’t enough to satisfy their drive to make a decent contribution and having no pockets (never mind them being deep!) It seemed impossible to work with government agencies with fairly lengthy tender-driven processes and even longer payment credit periods.
In Feb 2005, Mohit made his way to Mumbai to look for new ventures for sustainability. He wasn’t sure what he would find in the nation’s financial capital. He got introduced to a leading used car dealership in Mumbai quite by accident. The dealership wanted to get a used-car inventory management software developed. Despite the fact that the dealership had almost finalized a Mumbai-based software-development firm for the software, Mohit convinced them to give him the opportunity. He bagged the Rs 10,000 order (almost half the competition’s price) and spent two months at the dealership to understand and successfully implement the software. The development team back in Bhopal did a good job with this software. The customized software solution later became a standard software product and was termed as ‘Trading Cars’. Without an office or a team to support him in Mumbai, Mohit sold ‘Trading Cars’ dealership to dealership. At one point of time, every Mumbai used car dealership worth its salt was using ‘Trading Cars’.
The understanding of ‘Trading Cars’ and his interactions with used car dealers made Mohit realise the fact that the car buying and selling process isn’t smooth. He learnt that consumers rarely come out of the car buying experience feeling good about it. He also believed that the Indian car consumer deserves much better than what he gets. To improve the process, the company tried to connect all the Mumbai dealerships with a web interface so that they can trade among themselves and serve customers with better inventory. However, none of the dealerships used it and we realised our mistake in just ten days. We then decided to bring all the used car stock of multiple dealerships directly to car buyers and save them the effort of going from dealership to dealership. Thus, CarWale was launched on Oct 2005 with 500 dealers’ used car listings. We kept on adding free tools, services and information for new and used car consumers and today we are India’s most visited online automotive portal.
To know how we are doing at the moment, please read About CarWale.
PS: Three of our four founders, Mohit, Arun and Gaurav, share their alma-mater, Sainik School Rewa. Also, Mohit and Tufail are batchmates for their Master’s in Management degree from the University of Goa.
‘Trading Cars’ was coded and authored by Rajeev and Banwari, who are batchmates and have been best buddies from their engineering days. This duo also delivered all the core applications at CarWale. Banwari heads content and research and Rajeev heads technology.
Activities
Since 2009 CarWale has been organizing its annual event 'Vintage Wheels', a vintage carVintage car
A vintage car is commonly defined as a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930 known as the "Vintage era". There is little debate about the start date of the vintage period—the end of World War I is a nicely defined marker there—but the end date is a matter of a little...
rally in Navi Mumbai. In February 2010, CarWale took a Tata Nano
Tata Nano
The Tata Nano is an inexpensive, rear-engined, four-passenger city car built by the Indian company Tata Motors and is aimed primarily at the Indian domestic market....
on a 7000km drive covering the entire Golden Quadrilateral
Golden Quadrilateral
The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network connecting India's four largest metropolises: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, thus forming a quadrilateral of sorts. Four other top ten metropolises: Bangalore, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Surat, are also served by the network...
.