CarDekhoThe Story
CarDekho Group's board has passed a special resolution to convert its parent entity from Girnar Software Private Limited to Girnar Software Limited, a step that typically precedes a public listing.
The group is reported to be planning an IPO of around ₹3,000 crore, with some reports putting it as high as ₹3,500 crore, at a valuation of ₹13,000 crore to ₹15,000 crore. The issue is expected to consist largely of an offer for sale by existing shareholders, with a fresh issue of about ₹300 crore, roughly a tenth of the total. Peak XV Partners, Hillhouse Capital and CapitalG are reported to be among the investors that could sell. Axis Capital, IIFL Capital, Goldman Sachs and Nomura are understood to have been appointed as bankers, and the company has considered the confidential filing route. It has not publicly confirmed the plan, the valuation or the timetable.
That valuation would sit above the roughly $1.2 billion CarDekho was valued at after its October 2021 funding round, about ₹9,000 crore at the time.
Consolidated operating revenue rose 24 per cent to ₹2,795 crore in FY25, while the net loss narrowed to ₹266 crore. The group held net cash of ₹1,177 crore at the end of March 2025. It had earlier paused IPO preparations to focus on profitability.
Founded in 2008 by Amit Jain and Anurag Jain and based in Jaipur, CarDekho operates auto classifieds, used-car retail, vehicle financing through Rupyy, and mobility through Revv and Carrum. Carrum, a fleet management business launched with Uber in 2024, runs more than 3,000 vehicles at an annual revenue pace of around ₹300 crore.
Separately, InsuranceDekho, incubated within the group, is pursuing its own listing after a merger with RenewBuy. The combined insurance distribution business reported ₹6,700 crore of premiums in FY26.
The move comes on the same day Spinny was reported to have confidentially pre-filed for its own IPO.
Why It Matters
The composition of the proposed offering says more than its size.
A fresh issue of about ₹300 crore within a ₹3,000 crore offering means roughly 90 per cent of the money would go to selling shareholders rather than the company. That is consistent with the balance sheet. CarDekho held net cash of ₹1,177 crore at the end of March 2025 and has been reducing its losses. A company in that position does not need public markets for capital. Its investors need them for liquidity.
Peak XV, Hillhouse and CapitalG, reported to be among the potential sellers, backed the company through its growth years. The October 2021 round that valued CarDekho at about $1.2 billion was, for several of them, the most recent mark. A listing at ₹13,000 crore to ₹15,000 crore would let them exit above it.
That is now the dominant shape of Indian consumer internet listings. NSE's offering, which closed this week, was entirely an offer for sale. RentoMojo's was about 88 per cent. Companies that have reached profitability or come close to it are going public primarily to return money to investors who have waited a long time, rather than to fund expansion.
The valuation implies about five times FY25 revenue. For a group still reporting losses, that multiple rests heavily on how investors value the insurance and financing businesses around the core marketplace.
The Strategic Read
The more complicated question is what a buyer of CarDekho shares actually owns.
InsuranceDekho was incubated inside the group and is now pursuing a listing of its own, after merging with RenewBuy. That means CarDekho investors will hold, through the parent, a stake in a business that will soon have its own public share price. Every day, the market will be able to compare the value of that stake with the value it assigns to CarDekho as a whole.
Holding structures of that kind frequently trade at a discount. Investors who want exposure to insurance distribution can buy InsuranceDekho directly, and those who want the car business have to take the insurance stake along with it, valued at a price set elsewhere. How large a discount the market applies will shape how the ₹13,000 crore to ₹15,000 crore target holds up.
The rest of the group is already a portfolio rather than a single business. Classifieds, used-car retail, lending, rentals and a fleet operation serving Uber are different models with different margins and risks. Carrum is the most interesting of them. A fleet business supplying vehicles to ride-hailing is closer to asset leasing than to a marketplace, and its ₹300 crore revenue pace shows how far CarDekho has moved from the classifieds site it started as.
Set beside Spinny, whose IPO plan surfaced the same morning, the two companies illustrate the two ways to be large in Indian used cars. Spinny holds the inventory and earns the spread. CarDekho mostly connects buyers and sellers, then surrounds the transaction with financing, insurance and fleet services. Public investors are about to price both approaches at once, and the comparison will be instructive.
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