TVS Automobile Solutions Pvt Ltd (TVSASL), a leading independent automotive aftermarket player, has raised ₹375 crore. The investment has been made by a fund managed by Exor, one of Europe’s leading holding companies. The money raised would be used for business expansion of its recently floated digital aftermarket subsidiary – Ki Mobility Solutions, India’s first full-stack O-to-O (online-to-offline) digital platform.
The company will establish a pan India platform under Ki Mobility Solutions and build its cloud-based digital infrastructure to become the largest B-to-C (business to consumer) player in the automotive aftermarket.
“We are glad to have Exor as our investment partner...Our end-to-end digital platform provides India’s business entrepreneurs an opportunity to grow in a fragmented market and will bring transparency and organised structure into the aftermarket segment,” R Dinesh, Director, TVS Automobile Solutions, said in a statement.
Super app
Ki Mobility is working on what it calls a ‘Super app’ for its customers who will have access to end-to-end service requirements ranging from mechanical, collision and maintenance services, diagnostics, roadside assistance, insurance, etc. for their vehicles through the myTVS app, according to a statement.
There will also be a spare parts platform to cater to the fragmented service garage market (50,000 independent garages), through e-ordering of spare parts and through its efficient supply chain solutions.
In June, Ki Mobility had attracted ₹85 crore from tech investors led by Pratithi Investment Trust (represented by its trustee S Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys) and SeaLink Capital Partners (SCP).
The objective of myTVS brand is to bring together the entire automotive aftermarket ecosystem consisting of consumers, retailers, service garages and fleet operators onto its digital properties with twin offerings of a service platform and spares platform.
It aims to provide end-to-end solutions to its 3 million customers, 20,000 service garages, 10,000 retailers and fleets in 270 cities across the country.
Aims for top slot
TVS Automobile aims to become a leader in the digital aftermarket domain. While its GoBumpr (now 100 per cent owned by TVSASL) acquisition brought in B-to-C service aggregation platform capabilities, purchase of Mahindra First Choice (MFC) gave the company digital marketing competency to reach out to the customers in the digital space and the scale. All these were put together under a separate full-fledged O-to-O subsidiary Ki Mobility.