Startup Saturday: Driving success in used two-wheeler market

CredR startup, founded by Nikhil Jain and Sasidhar Nandigam in 2015, has developed an online marketplace that specialises in buying and selling used two-wheelers in India

Pune: Buying a pre-owned vehicle can be a stressful experience, with customers often facing uncertainty about the vehicle’s history, condition, and overall value. Negative experiences like discovering hidden defects, unscrupulous sellers, and high-pressure sales tactics can leave customers feeling frustrated and cheated. These issues can be especially pronounced in the used two-wheeler market, where many buyers lack the knowledge and expertise needed to make an informed decision.

Buying a pre-owned vehicle can be a stressful experience, with customers often facing uncertainty about the vehicle’s history, condition, and overall value. (HT PHOTO)

Seizing this market opportunity, CredR startup, founded by Nikhil Jain and Sasidhar Nandigam in 2015, has developed an online marketplace that specialises in buying and selling used two-wheelers in India, taking the uncertainty out of the buying process. One of its key technology solutions is the proprietary pricing application, which provides customers with an instant and transparent price estimate when they want to exchange their used petrol two-wheelers for electric bikes/scooters.

In the beginning…

A banker’s son, Sasidhar, hails from a town Srikakulam near Vishakhapatnam. He did his MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Pune from 2006-2008. He met Nikhil in 2015. Nikhil hails from Jalgaon, a town near Nashik and graduated from IIT Bombay (Indian Institutes of Technology). With his family into pharmaceutical business, Nikhil had witnessed the humbling experience of an entrepreneur father since his childhood. Nikhil aimed at going to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and becoming a research scientist, however, exposure to different technologies and companies while studying at IITB, changed his mind.

Nikhil said, “While working as an organising member at Techfest in IIT, I got exposure to several experts, speakers as well as technologies. That prompted me to start something of my own. I started my first company in solar thermal generation technology while I was studying in the third year and it was incubated at SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship). When that company got acquired, I started my second company Coursewave Eduventures in the edtech space. This second venture focussed on social collaboration technology for massive open online courses. This company was acquired by a US-based company and I continued to work for them for two years. Still, the entrepreneur bug was hitting me and I decided to start something which will help the Indian ecosystem.”

“In 2014, I was looking to buy a pre-owned bike for my own journey in Mumbai region. After a prolonged search, I got a local broker in Ghatkopar who sold me one bike. However, the bike was not good. I thought I had got a good discounted rate but the bike engine, battery etc had many problems. I felt cheated and hence started looking for reliable, transparent and human-intervention-free, technology- based platforms for buying-selling pre-owned vehicles. To my surprise no one had solved this simple problem,” he said.

“A little more research revealed that India is the world’s largest two-wheeler market and there are more than 30 crore motorcycles on the roads of our country. Every year two crore new vehicles are being added to the roads while similar number of used vehicles are being transacted. But this transaction is happening through friends, family, local dealers, brokers or in some dedicated old city areas like Rasta Peth in case of Pune city. Since this problem was unique to India, no one from other countries had attempted to build a global solution. I realised that if I can disrupt this business using technology, then it is a massive business opportunity. That is how CredR was started,” Nikhil said.

Marketplace

The idea of CredR was very simple. The idea was to build trust, transparency, and convenience in used motorcycles marketplace. Nikhil decided to use technology to leverage that. He said, “Initial few years we spent on focussing, understanding, and building the market. Hence, we started as a marketplace where sellers can list their motorcycle. We inspected the vehicle and then it was published on the platform. On the other hand, buyer looks at the listed vehicles and if they like it, they can use warranty, servicing services and buy the vehicle.”

“We were collecting a lot of data points like what price-point the two-wheeler is selling, what are buyers’ preference, what consumers are looking for as a service and how sellers are selling and are their pain points. These two years of studying the market helped us to generate a lot of data points and information. We had to invest a lot of resources and this product built for India was also working on global scale,” Nikhil said.

Pivot

While the marketplace model was throwing up useful insights, it also made Nikhil realise that he needs to look at a full stack solution. Explaining this need to pivot the business model, Nikhil said, “A full stack solution means selling used motorcycles just like new vehicles are sold through a structured process. New vehicles are manufactured by OEMs, parts assembled and sold through dealership or online platforms. Similarly, we thought of becoming a virtual OEM without manufacturing, but giving the same kind of confidence and trust to the end-consumers. If someone wants to buy a pre-owned two-wheeler of any brand, then they should buy it from CredR. Hence, we decided to pivot and get into the business of buying used two-wheelers from sellers, refurbishing them, making them completely new and as per our standards and selling it again to buyers through online and digital platforms.”

“Every city has one refurbish centre where the used vehicles are refurbished on 120+ parameters. After refurbishing, the vehicles are listed on our platform and a few physical experience centres. Once the vehicle is listed, potential buyers can see it on the platform and inspect it. If they like the vehicle, they can view the pricing. We have machine learning model-based solution for pricing which will display the price for any pin code in few seconds. Once the buyer pays the price, they can take the vehicle home. We also offer six-month warranty for free, road-side assistance, insurance, financing, and doorstep servicing services,” said Nikhil.

Next moves

Nikhil said, “We have made strong brand for ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles and now we are entering the EV ecosystem. We are building a buyback programme that guarantees a price for new EVs after 3 to 5 years. Additionally, the company is building a used EV ecosystem focused on supply, demand, and core functions while collaborating with other players in the EV ecosystem such as OEMs and charging infrastructure providers. We would soon test international markets especially the South East Asia region.”