Spinny's Success Story - The Tech-Driven Startup Transforming Car Ownership

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organisation's. The content in this post has been approved by Spinny.

Though some of us still want to go for a first-hand experience of things, a significant number of people opt for used products instead of the new ones, especially when it comes to the purchase of vehicles.

Our financial conditions have taken a tumble since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, but new cars are getting costlier each day. Furthermore, as ironic as it is, the quality of these cars and the average lifespan are equally going down. Besides, for the first-time buyers, going for used cars is always better as a decision. All of these reasons have boosted the sales of used cars.

The market size of the used cars in India was more than 4.4 million units in FY2020, which even surpassed that of the new car during that period, as reported by Statista. Another news revealed the fact that the used cars sales have grown nearly 50% YoY in India, as reported in December 2020, when compared to the same month in 2019.

Buying used cars in India is not at all pain, but all gain today! This is primarily because of the growing used car space in India, which is dominated by promising startups that are equipped with the technology of the age. Spinny is one such used car startup based in Gurgaon, Haryana that is disrupting the segment of used cars in India.

Read more about the brand Spinny, all the details of the used car industry, the Latest News about the company, Logo and Tagline, Founders, Startup Story, Mission and Vision, Employees of the company, the Business and Revenue Model, Funding and Investors, Competitors and more.

Spinny - Company Highlights

About Spinny
Spinny - Latest News
Spinny - Industry
Spinny - Logo, and Tagline
Spinny - Founders and Team
Spinny - Startup Story
Spinny - Vision and Mission Statement
Spinny - Employees
Spinny - Business Model and Revenue Model
Spinny - Funding, and Investors
Spinny - Acquisitions
Spinny - Growth and Revenues
Spinny - LayOffs
Spinny - Competitors
Spinny - Challenges Faced
Spinny - Future Plans
Spinny - FAQs

About Spinny

Spinny is a reliable platform for used cars. Powered by cutting-edge technologies, Spinny promises simple, convenient, trustworthy transactions for all the users who look to buy and sell used cars.

The company's platform contains a list of automobiles with full details that the buyers can check out. Furthermore, it also includes a test drive with a 5-day money-back assurance, thereby allowing the car owners to sell their vehicles and potential consumers to buy cars in an easy and transparent manner.

Sellers may arrange for an evaluation and accept an offer for their vehicle. Buyers may also go through the wide range of cars that Spinny offers online, choose a car, and book a test drive. Car owners may also put their vehicles for sale on the site and receive fast bids.

Spinny eliminates the danger of buying a used car and provides the users with complete peace of mind. Its multi-step filtration means that the users always have the option of selecting from a pool of certified used automobiles of the greatest quality. When a customer buys a Spinny Assured automobile, he/she will be getting a used car that hasn't been in an accident, hasn't had its meter tampered with, has clean records, and has been properly inspected against a 200-point checklist.

Spinny - Latest News

December 21, 2021 - Spinny facilitates ESOP buyback worth $12 mn (Rs 90 crore) for its current and former employees.

December 15, 2021 - The cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar partners with Spinny as an investor and brand ambassador. The "master blaster" of cricket, Tendulkar takes a keen interest in cars and boasts of a wide range of exotic four-wheelers that he owns.

November 24, 2021 - With the latest $283 million dollar round of Series E funding, Spinny joins the unicorn club. With this Spinny becomes the 39th Indian unicorn of 2021 and the 4th Indian used car startup to attain the feat.  

October 26, 2021 - PV Sindhu joins Spinny as one of the captains of #SquadSpinny.

"Spinny’s transparency, rigor, and commitment to earn consumer trust motivated me to be associated with Spinny," said Sindhu.

Spinny hopes to improve its objectives of assisting young Indians in realizing their hopes and ambitions by offering a simple and enjoyable automobile purchase or sale experience through this partnership. Spinny's goal is to build something that motivates young Indians to strive for greater heights.

Speaking of the association, PV Sindhu, said, "Spinny is a great brand to be associated with and I am pleased to be on board as one of the captains of Squad Spinny. I appreciate how their transparency establishes a relationship of trust with customers. If my family chose SellRight by Spinny on their own to sell my car – I know they wouldn’t just give the car without having complete trust in the selling process and the people behind it. That made my decision to be associated with the brand, much simpler."

Spinny - Industry

The used automobile market in India was valued at USD 27 billion in 2020 and is predicted to grow to USD 50 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 15% between 2021 and 2026.

As opposed to the serious aftermath of the pandemic for the new car space, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry was negligible. The industry is expected to significantly rise as more individuals desire independent mobility and new financial alternatives are incorporated into the used automobile market. Besides, after the pandemic onslaught, the consumers have been forced to search for alternatives to new automobiles, and the used car sector has a lot of room for expansion in this area. Besides, manufacture and sale have also been hampered by the pandemic, which made the purchasers quickly resort to the used automobile market.

Spinny - Logo, and Tagline

Spinny has chosen red and black as its brand colors and the logo of the brand is crisp and catching, marked with the starting letter, "S", of the brand.

Spinny's tagline says, "Cars you will love to buy."

Spinny - Founders and Team

Spinny was founded by Niraj Singh, Ramanshu Mahaur, Mohit Gupta, and Ganesh Pawar in 2015.

Niraj Singh

Spinny's Founder and CEO is Niraj Singh. Niraj Singh has also worked as a Founding Partner at Outbox Ventures in the past.

Ramanshu Mahaur

Spinny and Karmabite were co-founded by Ramanshu Mahaur, who currently serves as the co-founder and CTO of the company. He was most recently a member of Adobe's technical staff. Ramanshu graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.

Mohit Gupta

Mohit Gupta is one of Spinny's co-founders. Prior to joining Spinny, he worked at Flipkart from 2011 to 2014, holding several responsibilities.

Ganesh Pawar

Ganesh Pawar used to be Senior Manager of Business Development in Flipkart. He, then, co-founded Spinny. Now, he builds the food FMCG business at Udaan - an eCommerce-supply chain.

Spinny has over 1K employees working with the startup across the country.

Top 10 Automobile Startups In India To Know In 2020 - StartupTalky

The automotive industry is a pillar of Indian economy and the automotive industry contributes more than 7% to the total GDP. Auto industry is recognised as a ‘sunrise industry’.

StartupTalkySouvik Dey

Spinny - Startup Story

India's used car industry has been getting a lot of attention for quite some years now. It is mainly due to the better value proposition that used cars offer, more and more Indians are looking to opt for old cars than the newer ones.

However, the lack of proper information that is inherent in the process of the sales of the used automobiles, the absence of trustworthy middlemen, the complexity of navigating through the variety of alternatives when it comes to buyers, and finding the correct price of the vehicles for sellers have all been roadblocks in this path.

Besides, the procedure of buying a secondhand automobile is cumbersome and overly complicated. Independents provide a wide range of rates and services to entice people to buy automobiles of dubious quality. Choosing from a pool of mint and lemon autos, for example, has a high likelihood of bad selection for a beginner. All these provided a cradle for the birth of Spinny.

Niraj Singh, IIT-Delhi alumni, serial entrepreneur, and investor founded Spinny in 2015. His aim to alleviate young Indians' automobile ownership woes led to the formation of the firm. Niraj invested $500,000 of his personal money into the company. He is now backed by numerous venture capital groups and has raised close to Rs 418 crore. Niraj saw a need to provide a quality experience for individuals buying used automobiles and decided to build a simple and clear platform for customers to collect information and purchase a car.

Niraj Singh, Ramanshu Mahaur, Ganesh Pawar, and Mohit Gupta embarked on a mission to develop Spinny in order to sift out the quintessential problems of annoyance and skepticism and break down the arduous procedure into a one-click solution.

Buyers may rest assured knowing that all of the cars on offer have been Spinny Certified, which means they have passed a thorough assessment by our expert inspectors. This guarantees that the buyer is fully informed about the vehicle's condition and is making an educated selection. Buyers of Spinny - certified cars also benefit from a warranty on cars acquired via Spinny.

In addition, the organisation handles all documentation, from registration to title transfers, as well as aiding purchasers with financing their new acquisition. Spinny has finally brought actual ease and a smoother transaction to the used automobile market for both buyers and sellers.

The Spinny business initially started from Delhi NCR in 2015 and has seen quite a growth since then.

Spinny - Vision and Mission Statement

Spinny's mission is to make car ownership accessible, simple, and delightful.

"Our goal is for the country to trust our method, believe in and enjoy our cars", states the company's website.

"Only four percent of people are satisfied with their experience of buying a used car. We are providing trust, transparency, and simplicity. Our aim is that the buyer should be able to purchase the car with the same confidence that he or she shows while buying a new car," added Niraj.

Spinny - Business Model and Revenue Model

Spinny, transitioned from a customer-to-customer model to a full-stack one in which it buys, refurbishes, and sells old cars. According to the creator and chief executive officer Niraj Singh, the website sells close to 1,500 automobiles every month and is increasing at a constant pace of 15-16% month over month. Spinny hopes to roughly triple its current volume by the end of the year 2021, according to Singh.

“There was a lot more capital available, but we wanted limited dilution in this round because our burn is very limited. We don't have a runaway problem. It was just that we wanted to add an extra layer of security and the ability to experiment more,” Singh said.

Spinny has over 2 lakh plus customers and works with around 1000 people in over 11 cities, with ambitions to grow to 6 more by the end of the year, 2021. It now offers used cars in the ₹4-8 lakh range, but intends to expand its services to include both cheaper and higher-priced vehicles.

Why there was a Sudden surge in Sportscar sales in 2020

Used sports cars sales witnessed a growth of 82% during lockdown. Lets understand, Why there was a sudden Rise in sales in 2020

StartupTalkyAlan Joseph

Spinny - Funding, and Investors

Spinny raised around $513.5 million in funding over the 8 funding rounds it has witnessed to date. The last funding came in the form of undisclosed funding round from Sachin Tendulkar after the huge Series E funding round on November 24, 2021, led by Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi Growth, which helped the company join the unicorn club of Indian companies. Currently valued at over $1.8 bn, as of January 2021, Spinny has already become the 4th Indian unicorn startup in the used car space and 39th unicorn startup of India to achieve a unicorn valuation in 2021.

Spinny - Acquisitions

Spinny competes its ESOP buyback for its current and former employees. The ESOP buyback plan announced on December 21, 2021, worth ($12 mn) Rs 90 crores, was the first employee stock ownership plan that the company has seen to date.

Spinny - Growth and Revenues

Until March 2020, the firm claims to have attained a $50 million Annual Revenue. After a few months of the slowdown in the sector, Spinny claims that it has seen an increase in consumer interest due to the efficiency of contactless transactions and is back on pace with its June statistics in established cities.

Test drives at home are becoming more popular. Despite the catastrophic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, Bengaluru is already operating at 70-80% of pre-COVID-19 levels just two weeks after starting operations in June, while Delhi and Gurgaon are at 50%.

For the time being, expansion to new cities has been postponed in order to focus on the activities necessary to provide a safe experience. Since Lockdown 4.0, they've sold over 600 automobiles in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Hyderabad, and Delhi, according to Niraj.

In the January-August period of this year, online pre-owned automobile retailer Spinny saw a year-on-year increase in car sales of almost double to 11,600 units, showing a rebound in demand in tier-I and tier-II cities. According to the firm, the Gurugram based startup sold 4,900 automobiles in the first 8 months of 2020.

Spinny aims to end 2021 with roughly 28,000 units, bolstered by this rapid development, which has occurred as a result of retail network expansion and rising demand, according to the company.

Spinny recorded a 124% rise in its revenues in FY21, totalling around Rs 39.7 crores in FY21 when compared to the Rs 17.7 crores it clocked in FY20. On the other hand, the losses of the company recorded a 45% surge in FY21, which amounted to Rs 110 crores in comparison to Rs 76 crores loss that it incurred in FY20.

Business Model of Maruti Suzuki | How does Maruti Suzuki makes money

Maruti Suzuki is one of India’s largest automotive manufacturing company which has around 50% total market share. Lets look at its business model.

StartupTalkyPratyusha Srivastava

Spinny - LayOffs

Spinny, a used car startup, has laid off 5% of its workforce, or around 300 employees, as the company merged the Truebil and Max platforms into the main platform. The reason for the layoff is to have cleaner and more focused execution going forward and offer everything to customers on the main platform.

The company's official statement on this "We have witnessed a sharp uptick in demand for reliable, budget-friendly cars as most people have resumed work from the office. By splitting our inventory of cars across different brand platforms, we were sometimes unable to offer enough options to such customers. With this consolidation, we should be able to meet the needs of these customers well.

Spinny is providing affected employees with a three-month severance package, faster ESOP vesting, and the option to maintain their assets as a show of support.

Spinny - Competitors

• CarDekho
• Droom
• CARS24
• CarTrade
• CarWale
• Creative Webmedia Pvt Ltd
• Carnation
• CheckGaadi
• Chehaoduo
• CapCar
• Shift Technologies
• and Carlypso, are the top ten rivals in Spinny's competitive set.

Spinny - Challenges Faced

The trust issue is one of the major worries consumers have when buying used automobiles, according to Niraj Singh, co-founder, and CEO of Spinny. The startup's rigorous and transparent inspection of the car, buying it from the owner, and then selling it to clients, addresses those concerns, Singh adds.

The business claims it is removing conventional intermediaries from the mix, making used car purchases more reasonable and reliable for clients. If a consumer is unhappy with the automobile they bought from Spinny, they will receive a complete refund.

Spinny started out as a used automobile marketplace, but according to Singh, the company has grown to become a full-stack platform. The pandemic harmed Spinny's company for a few months, according to Singh, but the startup has now restored its pre-pandemic growth rates.

According to Singh, the outbreak of the deadly virus made many people wary about taking an Uber or Ola trip, prompting them to look into purchasing their own vehicles. Spinny's CAC was also dramatically lowered, he claimed.

Though Spinny is an evolving startup that has already achieved a unicorn valuation, it is facing tough competition from its rivals in the used car space. Therefore, surviving in one such landscape with cutthroat competition is itself a challenge that Spinny is battling against.

Spinny - Future Plans

“Our priority is to ensure the safety of the customers as well as our employees. We will be concentrating on home test drives and home deliveries. This pandemic is going to change consumer behaviour for good. We will keep the operations and execution lean - to cater to any new developments that are desired by the market,” Niraj says.

According to Niraj, the focus would be to maintain high standards in terms of safety, hygiene, and contactless purchasing experiences while providing customers with the desired 'Spinny bliss.' As the country's position improves, the firm will consider expanding into additional cities in accordance with its current goals, according to Niraj. However, depending on how customers react to home test drives and delivery, the company's retail experience may change.

Niraj has had his fair share of challenges. In the case of secondhand cars, neither the input nor the output is standard. Their procurement in the local market necessitated stringent quality standards in terms of paperwork, vehicle mechanical condition, and safety features. At every level, it was difficult to challenge the standards.

The firm doesn't want to be just another participant in the market in the coming year; instead, it wants to be the catalyst for changing people's perceptions about used vehicle purchases. According to Niraj, the goal is to create a seamless shopping experience that is consistent with openness, quality, responsibility, and trustworthiness.

Spinny - FAQs

What does Spinny do?

Spinny is a used cars trading platform that aims to deliver affordable used cars via an easy and transparent process for everyone.

Who founded Spinny?

Spinny was founded by Niraj Singh, Ramanshu Mahaur, Mohit Gupta, and Ganesh Pawar.

When was Spinny founded?

Spinny was launched in 2015.

Which companies do Spinny compete with?

CarDekho, Droom, CARS24, CarTrade, CarWale, Creative Webmedia Pvt Ltd, Carnation, CheckGaadi, Chehaoduo, CapCar, Shift Technologies, and Carlypso, are the top ten rivals in Spinny's competitive set.