loading
loading
Five years ago, CarTrade became one of the first digital auto marketplaces to test India’s public markets. The company went public in August 2021 at ₹1,618 per share. Five years on, its stock has climbed to around ₹3,000, offering an early read on how investors have valued the online auto marketplace story. Now, a new crop of used-car and auto commerce startups is preparing to embark on the same quest. Spinny, Cars24 and CarDekho are gearing up for potential public-market debuts. Spinny has pre-filed its IPO papers and is looking to raise ₹2,500 Cr to ₹3,000 Cr through a combination of fresh shares and an offer for sale (OFS), sources told Inc42. The Gurugram-based startup is targeting a potential listing in 2027. However, the timeline will depend on regulatory approvals, and the final issue size and structure could change during the IPO process. Spinny’s IPO plans have come to the fore as buying a used car is increasingly becoming a mainstream choice, thanks to the value-conscious Indian consumer. According to Redseer, India’s used-car market is expected to reach around $70 Bn by FY31, with annual sales projected to touch 9-10 Mn vehicles and the segment expected to grow at a 14-18% CAGR. However, for Spinny, which has built a sizeable business, the real test is converting scale to profitability. Now, let’s get right into the numbers to see how the company is faring financially and what its IPO-bound journey could look like. Spinny Is In The Fast Lane, But Profits Lag Behind Spinny’s numbers suggest a business that is scaling rapidly but still working towards consistent profitability. Its operating revenue nearly doubled over two years to ₹4,656 Cr in FY25 and is estimated to have grown another 29% to around ₹6,000 Cr in FY26. The company expects another 25%-30% growth this fiscal. However, it reported a loss of ₹423.8 Cr in FY25, although the loss narrowed by 28% from the previous year. Investors have shown that they are willing to back new-age companies, but growth alone is no longer enough. Spinny’s IPO will therefore be watched not just for the size of the issue or its valuation, but for how the market prices the trade-off between growth, profitability and the capital required to build a large used-car platform. The recent correction in auto stocks adds another layer to its IPO story. The Nifty Auto index has fallen nearly 6% this month after several months of gains, while some major OEMs have seen sharper pullbacks. “Although used-car marketplaces have a different business model from traditional auto companies, a softer sentiment towards the broader auto sector could influence how investors initially approach the category,” an analyst said. Meanwhile, Spinny is expanding beyond the core retail used-car proposition. Launched last year, its Spinny Circle platform is aimed at helping new-car dealerships manage exchange vehicles through inspection, valuation, sale and settlement. If such initiatives can deepen supply and improve inventory turnover, they could become an important part of the company's broader IPO narrative. Can Spinny’s Broader Ecosystem Drive Margins? Before we explore the question above, let’s take a quick look at how Spinny has evolved before its public-market journey. The company follows an inventory-led, full-stack model, buying used cars directly from consumers, inspecting and refurbishing them before selling them to customers. In FY25, Spinny’s revenue from contracts with customers stood at ₹4,650 Cr, with nearly 98% coming from car sales, while commission and other income remained relatively smaller. It spent ₹4,304 Cr on purchasing goods, including ₹4,250 Cr on stock-in-trade, alongside ₹136.8 Cr in direct costs such as refurbishment, logistics and warranty. Now, Spinny is trying to widen the monetisation opportunity beyond the initial vehicle sale. It facilitates financing and insurance and offers warranty and other protection products. It acquired car-servicing and repair startup GoMechanic in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately ₹450 Cr in November 2025. GoMechanic’s FY25 revenues stood at ₹144.5 Cr. The company has yet to release its FY26 results. “The strategic logic is to bring after-sales servicing into the ecosystem, potentially allowing Spinny to monetise customers beyond the first transaction. It is trying to build a broader ownership ecosystem around the vehicle, rather than relying solely on the margin from the initial sale,” a CXO at a rival marketplace said. Hence, going forward, whether these adjacent businesses can strengthen the economics of Spinny’s core car-selling engine, rather than simply add more layers to an already capital-intensive model, will be important for the company. Spinny is looking to enter the public markets at a time when India’s used-car market is becoming large enough to support multiple organised players. The market remains highly fragmented, with nearly 80% of used-car transactions still happening through unorganised channels. This leaves plenty of room for platforms that can bring greater trust and standardisation to the buying process. Inspection and certification, transparent pricing, financing, warranties, return policies, ownership transfers and doorstep delivery are increasingly becoming part of the organised used-car experience. The opportunity is also moving beyond entry-level vehicles, as rising incomes and shorter ownership cycles bring newer and more premium cars into the resale market. Spinny’s Next Test Spinny’s potential IPO comes at an inflexion point for India’s used-car market, where scale is no longer the only differentiator. The more interesting divide is emerging between businesses that own and control the vehicle transaction and those that operate as asset-light marketplaces. CarTrade sits closer to the latter, with businesses spanning classifieds, auctions and vehicle remarketing, while Spinny has built an inventory-led model around sourcing, refurbishing, pricing and selling cars directly to consumers. Owning inventory gives the company greater control over vehicle quality, pricing and the customer experience, but also exposes it to inventory management, refurbishment and resale-value risks. E20 petrol, EVs and changing fuel preferences are other risks that could potentially impact the resale value and demand of used cars. For Spinny, the next phase is not simply about adding more vehicles or cities. It is about building the intelligence to decide which cars to buy, at what price, where to place them and how quickly to sell them, while extracting more value from the customer through financing, insurance and after-sales.
document fetched 2026-09-28 02:55 · canonical https://inc42.com/features/spinnys-ipo-ride-but-whats-under-the-hood