Sumit Chhazed, Co-founder, CredR
Sumit Chhazed is the co-founder at CredR and is an integral part of the venture. He is referred to as ‘The Heart’ of the venture as he is responsible for helming Product and Innovations. At the age of 25, Sumit has prior to’ CredR’, successfully structured and executed two ventures namely: Enelek Power-a start-up aimed at providing energy saving solutions in India and ‘Coursewave Eduventures’ - a technology focused education company partnering with best universities & institutions of India and providing online engaging courses to be accessible to everyone for free. CredR, is an online marketplace for listing and purchasing verified, pre-owned vehicles at the fairest value. CredR stands for Credible Resale and with its multi dimensional approach of changing the customers’ perception towards the pre-owned vehicles, the platform connects buyers and sellers to ensure genuine, transparent and convenient transactions of buying and selling of pre-owned bikes. An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduate, Sumit like many of the Alma-maters of this prestigious institute, chose to create his own path, not once but thrice successfully. Apart from his professional pursuits, Sumit is an avid trekker and adventure sports enthusiast, as also a skilled coder and inspiring public speaker. In conversation with Dominic Rebello, this young maverick maps out the future course for his company.
What drives you?
The idea was born out of our personal experience. My friend and I were hunting for a used bike after our college days. We thought it would be a smart and economical decision to buy a second hand bike. The whole process was very hectic and troublesome; we kept running from one dealer to another to find a used bike that fits our requirement criteria. Finally we found one, after a lot of searching and seeking.
Unfortunately we faced another set of problems with the vehicle post its purchase. The bike started creating problems every now and then. Eventually, the engine also had to be replaced after coughing up another 7000 rupees. Despite spending more than fifty percent of its purchase value on repairs, one fine day, the bike turned redundant and today rests in a garage, unused. We realized how painstaking the process of buying a used two wheeler is and the need to create a credible platform. That’s when CredR was born…
How big is the potential for a business like yours?
We have a huge consumer demand for pre-owned 2-wheelers vehicles, across urban and Tier 2 – 3 markets, because of its affordability, easy commute and maintenance. However, this segment is currently very unorganized and cluttered with local players which make the process of buying a second hand bike quite cumbersome. Often it gets really tricky to buy a good second hand bike from the market owing to the inconvenience, unreliability and hidden transaction processes, and to add to it, there is no price standardization of the vehicle. There are innumerable issues and unprecedented aspects that the customer needs to tackle, making the whole experience very stressful
How do you plan to scale up; raise funds through seed or venture capital or simply grow the old fashioned way through rising turnovers?
Our business is based on a transaction led model, earning depends on each and every transaction that takes place through our portal. In the future, we would be extending our arms to the post sales service which will further extend our revenue streams.
We had started with the initial capital of rupees 20 lakhs and we had put up our own money. CredR recently received a funding of $15Million in Series A from Fidelity’s Proprietary Investment Arm. The funding is directed towards accelerating growth and to expand company’s geographic and product presence. Prior to this we had raised an undisclosed sum from Growthstory, the family office of K. Ganesh and his wife Meena Ganesh with a promising Series A investment from Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal of Snapdeal & Amit Agarwal of Amazon.
Who would primarily be your consumer audience?
Our customers are potential buyers of used two wheelers, individual sellers of two wheelers as well as dealers of used automobiles. Our customers majorly comprise of youth, people belonging to 18-35 years age bracket, majorly students and working professionals. Also people looking for new two wheelers are gradually turning towards us.