Ping An Completes First Venture Investment in India to Enhance Auto Services Ecosystem
HONG KONG and SHANGHAI,Dec. 5,2019 -- Ping An Insurance (Group) of Company of China,Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group",HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) announced that Ping An Global Voyager Fund,its overseas investment arm,has led a US$70 million Series D in Indian auto technology company CarDekho,alongside Sequoia Capital and Hillhouse Capital. This is Ping An's first venture investment in India.
CarDekho Group,founded in 2008,is one of India's leading autotech companies. It has successfully digitized the auto ecosystem in India and is aggressively pursuing the vision to own the personal mobility space by helping customers across their entire car buying and ownership journey. CarDekho Group currently has operations in India,Indonesia and Philippines and operate leading Indian auto sites such as CarDekho.com,Gaadi.com,ZigWheels.com,BikeDekho.com,InsuranceDekho.com and PowerDrift.com.
Based in China,Ping An is one of the world's largest financial services companies. Ping An has been investing heavily in technology and building five ecosystems covering financial services,health care,auto services,real estate services,and smart city services. The Group is the majority shareholder of China's largest auto portal Autohome (NYSE: ATHM).
"Auto services are a core component of Ping An's 'finance + ecosystem' strategy,reflected in our majority shareholding in Autohome in China. We have been extremely impressed with the business CarDekho has built in India,particularly its success in developing different types of financial services offerings to address car buyers' needs," saidDonald Lacey,Managing Director and COO of the Ping An Global Voyager Fund. "The Global Voyager Fund's stake in CarDekho represents Ping An's first venture investment in India,and we are delighted to partner with an organization of CarDekho's caliber."
"It's a matter of great pride for us at CarDekho that Ping An is choosing us as their first Indian investment. As a leading full stack autotech company in India,we at CarDekho are committed to help consumers throughout their car buying journey. Our unique auto ecosystem provides us a competitive edge in reaching out to consumers and engage with them through our various transaction models at one platform. With the latest fundraise,we will continue to strengthen our domestic and international businesses and will aggressively work towards becoming the largest personal mobility player in the country," said Mr Amit Jain,CEO and Co-Founder,CarDekho Group.
About Ping An Group
Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China,Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 200 million retail customers and 594 million Internet users,Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world.
Ping An has two over-arching strategies,"pan financial assets" and "pan healthcare",which focus on the provision of financial and healthcare services through our integrated financial services platform and our five ecosystems of financial services,real estate services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystems" strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services. As China's first joint stock insurance company,Ping An Group is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Company is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
PingAnranked 7th on the Forbes Global 2000 list and 29th on the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 40th on the 2019 WPP Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. For more information,please visitwww.pingan.cn.
About Ping An Global Voyager Fund
Established in 2017 by Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China,Ltd ("Ping An"),the Ping An Global Voyager Fund is a Hong Kong-based investor in growth stage fintech and healthtech companies. The fund typically invests between US$15 million and US$50 million in non-control positions in companies where an affiliation with Ping An is likely to create significant mutual value over time. The Fund has invested approximately US$250 million across Europe,Asia and North America.
About CarDekho Group
CarDekho Group is one of India's leading auto tech companies,founded in 2008 and operates in India,Indonesia and Philippines. Headquartered in Jaipur,the CarDekho group has successfully digitized the entire Indian auto ecosystem. The group currently operates various leading Indian auto sites such as CarDekho.com,InsuranceDekho.com,PowerDrift.com and more. It recently launched an online insurance portal called InsuranceDekho.com offering services in motor and health insurance and CarDekho Gaadi stores as the one-stop destination for selling pre-owned cars. The group also pioneered specialized portals TyreDekho.com and TrucksDekho.com. In 11 years,the company has seen a phenomenal uptake and is now recognized in India as the largest automotive video content player with 2 million+ YouTube subscribers,the largest consumer-facing digital destination with 41 million monthly unique visitors and the largest auto social media platform. In 2016,the company expanded its presence in Indonesia under the brand name OTO,which has become the number one auto site in the country in less than 2 years. It recently acquired the Philippines operations of CarMudi and expanded its base in two Southeast Asian countries.CarDekho has raised funding from marquee investors including Sequoia,Hillhouse Capital,CapitalG (formerly known as Google Capital),HDFC Bank,Axis Bank,Times Internet,Trifecta and Ratan Tata.
