Sources say Indian company Spinny has secured $160 million in funding to acquire GoMechanic

Spinny, an Indian online used car marketplace, is raising about $160 million as part of its move to acquire auto services startup GoMechanic, TechCrunch has learned.

The Series G round, which includes a mix of primary and secondary transactions, will value the 10-year-old startup at about $1.8 billion after the money, three people familiar with the matter said, which is broadly in line with its previous valuation.

The round is roughly $90 million seed, the people said; Existing investor Accel has transferred about $44 million of that amount, with some details of the investment emerging in regulatory filings in India this week, first reported by Indian outlet Entrackr. A new investor is participating in the remainder of the seed stage, but TechCrunch was unable to confirm its details.

WestBridge Capital is doubling down on the new round with a check of a similar size to its previous investments, the people said. The company invested about $35 million to $40 million in Spinny’s Series F round earlier this year.

Much of the secondary portion of the deal is being sold by Indian venture capital firm Fundamentum, according to the people, while Blume Ventures is also expected to reduce part of its stake.

Accel, Fundamentum and Blume Ventures did not respond to requests for comment. Westbridge Capital declined to comment.

In March, Spinny raised $131 million in the first part of a Series F round led by Accel, with participation from Fundamentum, before expanding the raise to about $170 million in June to include WestBridge Capital. These funds were allocated to expand Spinny’s core used car business.

However, the new round is being raised specifically to finance the acquisition of GoMechanic and invest in its platform, without drawing on the startup’s existing cash reserves, the people said. Previous reports suggested that Spinny could buy GoMechanic for around INR 4.5 billion (about US$49.70 million) in a cash and stock deal.

A consortium led by Lifelong Group acquired GoMechanic in 2023 after the startup admitted to making “serious errors” in its financial reporting. The startup previously had backing from high-profile investors, including Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and SoftBank.

For Spinny, the acquisition of GoMechanic would deepen its control across the used car value chain. The Gurugram-based startup has built a significant consumer-facing business, selling about 13,000 used cars a month, primarily directly to buyers and, to a lesser extent, to dealers through its auction platform. Spinny operates its own large reconditioning centers to recondition vehicles before sale and relies on third-party service shops for after-sales service of customers’ vehicles – a gap that GoMechanic can create in-house.

GoMechanic will also serve as a “two-way” funnel for Spinny, a person familiar with the matter said. The platform will service vehicles purchased or sold through Spinny, and help attract car owners who may not yet become customers. This could help expand Spinny’s vehicle supply without significantly increasing customer acquisition costs.

The acquisition comes at a time when India’s used car market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of about 10% to nearly 9.5 million units by 2030, from about 6 million units today, according to a recent report by Mahindra First Choice and Volkswagen Certified Pre-Owned.

The GoMechanic deal marks Spinny’s latest move to expand its presence in the automobile market in India. In recent months, the startup has expanded beyond used car sales by acquiring automotive publications Autocar India, Autocar Professional and What Car? India through London-based Haymarket Media Group, and by launching a non-banking finance company, Spinney Capital, to provide car loans to customers.

Neeraj Singh, co-founder and CEO of Spinny, declined to comment.