In an effort to tackle the issues facing the car rental industry, Droom has launched its new product, Droom Rental. The company, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary, announced the addition of a new category that employs technology and artificial intelligence to provide over 25,000 cars in over nine categories, including cars, buses, coaches, helicopters, planes, yachts, ambulances, scooters, bikes, and bicycles. In just one week since its introduction, Droom Rentals has reportedly acquired more than 1,500 listings from more than 100 rental providers in more than 25 cities.
Car Rentals a Highly Unorganised Sector in India
According to a statement from the firm, the $23 billion car rental market in India is currently very disorganised, with a significant lack of trust, opaque pricing, and non-standard experience, as well as a limited adoption of AI and technology. Other rental categories like daily rental, corporate rental, wedding rental, employee transportation solution, event rental, etc., remain largely unorganised, inefficient, and full of fragmented providers, despite the ride-hailing segment’s successful integration of cutting-edge technology and streamlined operations, Droom stated and expressed its intention to tap into the unorganised rental market.
According to Sandeep Aggarwal, the founder and CEO of Droom, the car rental industry has long been a source of frustration for him because it lacks transparency, trust, standardisation, a vast or diverse fleet, or premium fleet options. He said that the company will shortly be introducing a state-of-the-art technological stack for employee mobility, corporate rental, and all other rental kinds, bringing India’s car rental market up to, if not better than, international standards.
Connecting Used Car Dealers with Customers
Sandeep Aggarwal founded Droom in 2014, and it provides an online marketplace that links buyers and used car dealers. Through its partnerships with banks and NBFCs, the startup also offers financial backing. To date, the firm has raised a total of $296.00 million. Spinny: A Gurgaon-based marketplace for trading used cars, Spinny was founded in 2015. It lets people buy cars, schedule test drives, and choose cars online. Droom’s rivals are Spinny, Cars24, and CarDekho.
The startup’s main sources of revenue include advertising fees, vendor subscription revenues, and buyer commissions. In terms of finances, Droom’s India division cut its loss in half for the fiscal year that concluded on March 31, 2023. From INR 137 Cr in the previous fiscal year to INR 62.1 Cr in FY23, the company was able to reduce its net loss by 55%. But throughout the reviewed year, its operating revenue also fell. In FY23, Droom recorded operating revenue of INR 253.2 Cr, a 34% decrease from INR 384.6 Cr in FY18.
Nitin Konde
