Times have changed- haven’t they? And perhaps at lightning speed even. What used to be second-hand cars, are now called pre-owned cars. Ditto for bikes and scooters.
What used to be, at least, at some point of time in the past the great yearning for buying brand new, expensive, top-of-the-line cars and bikes have sort of been replaced by the inherently undeniable value of owning pre-owned cars.
Today, you don’t necessarily run into people who have a penchant of buying a salubrious Mercedes right out of some state of the art showroom. The love for owning a great sedan or SUV with a touch of gravitas is very much there. But individuals with reasoned choice and nuance are increasingly going for cars that may have been driven for 5000 and as seen in certain cases, even 10,000 kilometres before.
In some ways, it could be said that the way we define our relationship with automobiles has undergone some change. And among the leading pioneers in the country (one of the fastest growing economies) that has heralded a never-seen-before love and demand for preowned cars is Cars24. Who doesn’t know Cars24 today and in this day and age?
In some ways you could say that what has well and truly added to the success of the Gurugram-headquartered organisation is the very fact that none other than an MS Dhoni became the brand ambassador and still endorses the company, a firm that is today India’s leading online transaction for pre owned vehicles.
But truth be told, not all is right where Cars24 stands at this point in time. Well, not really where the job security of its employees stand
But all of the above said, to make sense of just what really happened and why it happened at Cars24 in the first place, the following are some key excerpts from a news report published on the famous NDTV.com. Maybe it will help us a tad bit to understand the chaos that has taken place in a company, which not to long ago declared itself as a Unicorn in India:
This is business-as-usual performance-linked exits that happen every year.
In February this year, the company had announced its annual ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) buyback worth around ₹ 75 crore to reward its employees.
In the last four years the company has consistently undertaken annual ESOP buyback initiatives for its existing and former employees with the value of total buyback standing around ₹ 113 crore.
The company offers a digital platform for searching, buying, selling and financing online of pre-owned vehicles.
According to its website, set up in 2015 Cars24 has around 205 branches across 182 major cities in India, and over 4 lakh customers have used its platform.
But all the above said, what’s rather interesting is that the firm that is currently laying off its employees, had experienced success not too long ago when it became a Unicorn.
Given that fact, against the data that was put in the public domain that the company- raised over a $200 million Series E funding round led by DST Global with participation from existing investors, including Exor Seeds, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Unbound, a valuation of over $1 billion– news that employees are being told to leave is a tad bit surprising. Is it not?