Venture Catalysts (Vcats), India’s premier early-stage investment firm, proudly announces its successful exit from Koovers, a prominent B2B e-commerce platform specializing in auto spare parts.
The exit, marked by a 2.1x return on investment in just 1.5 years, follows Koovers’ acquisition by Schaeffler India Ltd, a subsidiary of the German automotive powerhouse Schaeffler Group, in August 2023 for a sum of Rs 142.4 crore.
Venture Catalysts had initially invested in Koovers during its pre-Series A funding round in early 2022, through its Angel Fund alongside other Angel investors and Family Offices with a direct interest in the company.
This successful exit has also benefited other investors such as Inflection Point Ventures, Canbank Venture Fund, and JPIN, all of whom were significant backers of Koovers.
Speaking on the exit, Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Founder and Managing Director of Venture Catalysts said, “Koovers is one of the rarest startups that is not only solving a major problem in the automotive aftermarket segment but also been posting impressive revenues year after year. We invested in the company for a long term but the acquisition was a great exit opportunity with over 2.1x returns in just 1.5 years in a market that’s facing a longish funding winter and a liquidity crunch. These opportunities to the investors create a huge positive impact in the entire ecosystem.”
Founded in 2015 by Vinayak YB, Sandeep Begur, and S Prem Kumar, Koovers is a B2B e-commerce platform that supplies auto spare parts to independent auto workshops (IWS) and the aftermarket ecosystem.
During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Koovers recorded a revenue of Rs 77 crore, serving over 7,000 independent workshops and maintaining a diverse portfolio comprising approximately 1.8 million parts from multiple manufacturers
Speaking on the development, Sandeep Begur, Co-founder of Koovers said, “We are quite excited to have had investors like Venture Catalysts on our captable. With their guidance under the leadership of Dr Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, we were able to achieve our growth metric goals thus creating immense value for all our investors.”
