[Funding] Two startups - Droom and OfBusiness - turned Unicorn this week

Used automobile marketplace Droom has raised $200-millionin its pre-IPO round at a valuation of over $1 billion. The round saw participation from 57 Stars and Seven Train Ventures. The latest unicorn (17th in 2021) competes with the likes of CarDekho, Cars24, Spinny, and CarTrade in the used-car retail space. The company will use the funds to grow its presence in the Top 100 cities of India and international markets and augment its last-mile delivery service. The company further aims to list on NASDAQ or NSE by 2022, stated the company founder, Sandeep Aggarwal.

Interestingly, Aggarwal also co-founded Shopclues, one of the first Indian startups to turn Unicorn. The founder has also confirmed the IPO probability of a $300 million primary fresh issue with no OFS planned yet. Droom’s current annual run-rate is $1.7 billion for gross merchandise value and $54 million for net revenue. The company remains on track to touch a GMV of $2 billion and net revenue of $65 million in the calendar year 2021. It claims to be having over 1.1 million automobiles on its platform from over 2.6 lakh dealers.

OfBusiness turns unicorn post-SoftBank-led $160 million funding

Gurugram-based B2B startup Ofbusiness has entered the unicorn club. It has raised $160 million from SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, the company release said. Existing investors Falcon Edge Capital and Matrix Partners also participated in the round. The funding valued the startup at $1.5 billion, almost double its $800 million valuations in April this year. This makes it the 18th Indian startup to become a unicorn this year; following automobile marketplace Droom and online trucking platform BlackBuck.

OfBusiness aims to be profitable, by crossing more than $1.1 billion revenue run rate in commerce by September 2021. The firm claims to be growing at 4 times year on year. The company will use the new capital for acquisitions and strategic investments to gain greater control over the supply chain of its core segments like foodgrains, metals, plastics, petrochemicals, industrial chemicals, food grains, and building materials.