India's digital revolution similar to Europe's industrial revolution: Droom's Sandeep Aggarwal

Fresh from the massive Rs. 200 crore funding round, automobile marketplace, Droom, Co-founder and CEO, Sandeep Aggarwal says the digital revolution in India is unprecedented and is no less than the industrial revolution experienced by Europe in beginning in the second half of the 18th century.

"In 2010 India had created only about $3 billion in Internet wealth and in 2015 it was $35 billion. In my view, by 2018 it will be $100 billion and by 2020 we should be hitting $250 billion. Nowhere in the world would you find an opportunity like this and digital revolution in the country is no less than the industrial revolution in Europe, the rise of America after World War 1, rise of Japan after World War 2, the automobile revolution in Detroit and the rise of the Internet in the US and China. These are broad six to seven man made opportunities to create wealth and social transformation," says Aggarwal.

Watch: My Big Plunge feat. Droom

Aggarwal, a second-time entrepreneur, finalized the idea to start Droom in April 2014. "I looked at a lot of ideas, but finally settled on Droom because India is the third largest automobile market in the world and an online marketplace to buy used automobiles made sense. We finally launched Droom on November 21, 2014, a date which is important to me since I had started ShopClues on the same date three years before," says Aggarwal.
Since then, Droom has expanded to 15 categories, which include bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, cars, luxury cars, super bikes, and even planes and helicopters. "We did not want to be limited to automobiles and expanded to automobile services," says Aggarwal.

Business has been brisk for Droom as Aggarwal was recently said the company has 47,000 B2C sellers on board, 55,000 listings and its annualized GMV at the end of April was at $160 million. Aggarwal says the company is now targeting gross merchandise sales of $10 billion by 2020.

Explaining how the company makes money, Co-founder and VP, Business Development, Rishab Malik says Droom charges a commission on everything sold on Droom. "A two-wheeler has a commission of 2 %, a car has 1.5 % of the value of the transaction and depending on the category the commission rate changes. We also have a services business that includes auto inspection, car-care and detailing, road-side assistance among others and in this business we make about 12% commission. Most of our business comes from commission on selling cars and bikes, but another revenue avenue for us has been in the form of advertisement from automobile and financial services companies," says Malik.

At a time when most companies are struggling to raise money, Droom's business has seen validation from investors in the latest funding round. The Series B round of equity financing has been led by Singapore-based investor Beenext, who has also backed ShopClues.

"If you are an entrepreneur, you should see an opportunity the size of a Mount Everest when others regard it as a pebble. Never jump into the entrepreneurial bandwagon simply because it is glamorous and you want to be your own boss. Being an entrepreneur is one of the toughest jobs in the world and is lonely and draining," says Aggarwal.