NayaGaadi: Rural Multi Brand Experience centre and Marketplace for all brand new vehicles for Rural India.

 

NayaGaadi is a Bangalore based startup founded by Balaji Kaisetty. NayaGaadi is an online platform which is directly connecting automobile dealers and manufacturers to sell the new vehicles online.

 

NayaGaadi offers personalized service and delivery, be it multi brand test drives, vehicle financing needs, insurance assistance, registration, deals and discounts and takes care of last mile delivery, says Balaji.

 

We got an opportunity to talk with Balaji, and see what he has to say. I am sure his interview with us will inspire you.

 

 

Give a brief info about your startup?

NayaGaadi.com is Rural India’s first Multi Utility Market place for all the Brand New Vehicles.

NayaGaadi.com is on the road to revolutionize the NEW automobile buying experience by using the OMNI channel. It aims to

-Bridge the gap between the Rural Indian automobile market with urban India.

– Establish Rural Multi Brand Experience centres to serve the unserved rural community.

-Be a single window for all services and products related to the new automobile buy

-Be an avenue for dealerships to improve sales by creating an online sales channel

-Be a launch pad for introducing Electric Vehicles / Mobility solutions before reaching the offline mode

-To attract a significant market of online customers looking for the best deals

 

What we offer? All Services at doorstep:

• Multi-Brand Test Drives
• Vehicle Finance assistance
• Vehicle Insurance assistance
• Deals and Discounts and
• Documentation, Registration and Delivery at the Doorstep of the customer.
• Launchpad for Electric Vehicles and Mobility solutions before they reach offline consumers. •Additionally, offers Customization needs of the New Vehicles.

 

What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?

NayaGaadi is Rural India’s first Multi Utility Marketplace for all new vehicles set up with the aim of helping the underserved, under represented and under-recognized rural auto consumer by offering personalized service and delivery options.

Hailing from a rural village from Andhra Pradesh called Thadukupeta, Nagari Mandal, Chittoor District ( which is famous for mango market ), Balaji Kaisetty admits that Rural and semi-rural consumers are always deprived of getting the best brands and services and a majority of the companies have ignored them due to feasibility and viability of their limited volumes.

Especially the automobile sector where the brands have little presence in the rural and semi-rural Indian market.  “The rural Indian automobile consumer is grossly underserved,” opines he. There are no showrooms, dealers, Banks, service centres in many rural parts of the country as it is unviable to set up one. This left a lasting impression on him. And after spending 20 years in the IT industry in Global IT Companies like IBM, Hewlett Packard, Wipro Technologies in various roles, he decided to do something for rural India. And hence, he along with Sangeetha Thulasi, who also has a similar background, setup NayaGaadi in 2015, rural India’s first multi-utility marketplace for all new vehicles.

NayaGaadi offers personalized service and delivery, be it multi-brand test drives, vehicle financing needs, insurance assistance, registration, deals and discounts and takes care of last mile delivery.

Unique Platform for India specific Automobile Industry:

NayaGaadi’s solution addresses the automobile needs of a rural consumer by connecting them to all brands, all categories of new vehicles under one platform. Its technology-driven marketplace connects dealers, automobile manufacturers, banks, financing companies and insurance companies and consumers. The platform facilitates test drives, vehicle loans, and insurance assistance and aids last mile delivery of the vehicle.

NayaGaadi’s unique platform consists of Online Marketplace, Rural Multi Brand Experience Centers and Rural Network Agent App. NayaGaadi’s Technology driven new retail business model separates from the general e-commerce models which are driven and supported by Investors cash discount model, whereas NayaGaadi model is both online and offline E-commerce combined with value-driven personalised service and delivery model.

For the buyer, NayaGaadi offers a platform that allows them to buy a new vehicle –autos, bikes, mopeds, cycles, cars, buses, passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and more –with a home delivery facility.

On the seller side, this platform provides an additional avenue to increase their customer base and sales volume. Also, it acts as a platform for launching new vehicles, apart from generic existing automobile brands, it supports new players for example – new age EV startups and mobility solutions. This way the New Age Ev startups reach their target audience within a short span of time.

Special Purpose Vehicles / Customization: Additionally, this platform also connects bodybuilders, fabricators, custom design specialists in the automobile sector with the new vehicle customization consumers for their needs. “This will help consumers get standardized service, cost and quality deliverables with simplicity as a key focus,” says Balaji.

To make all this happen, the company has established partnerships with dealers and OEM manufacturers, EV Startups across categories. It gets its revenue from every new vehicle sold through its platform in the form of commission from dealers, OEMs, banks, insurance companies and value-added product vendors.

Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this startup?

Kaisetty Balaji is the founder and Game changer for NayaGaadi. Balaji comes with 20 + years of IT industry experience and worked with some of the world class blue chip IT companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Wipro Technologies, Microland and Aspect /i2 Technologies. His core expertise is in Infrastructure, Project management, consulting and Transformation and IT Services. He is very passionate about rural problems and using technology to the benefit of the common man. He is Technology and innovation member for Govt of Karnataka from CII. Panel member of the National committee on E-commerce from CII. He has Balaji is an alumnus of State University of New York, Buffalo, USA and pursuing PhD from Vignan University from Andhra Pradesh.

 

Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?

NayaGaadi is born out of Silicon Valley and Startup capital of India – Bengaluru (Karnataka). Bangalore is the innovation hub and people adapts the new things much faster than anywhere in India. It’s also capital for talent pool. Also for the automobile sector, all the major dealers are in Bangalore and also some of the automobile OEM/MFR’s. Its an apt place for any innovation. NayaGaadi started its journey as launchpad startup from IIM Bangalore NSR CELL, Later incubated at Govt of Karnataka, IAMAI Mobile 10x Bangalore. NayaGaadi is also a Nasscomware 10000 Selected startup. Later it moved to IIIT-Bangalore Innovation centre and currently operating from STPI Orchidscape  Incubation centre. Our initial dealers are all from Bangalore..in a way Bangalore is our central hub for NayaGaadi operation. Additionally,

NayaGaadi serving customers in and around Bengaluru-Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Telangana and Tamilnadu. The company aims to enter 30 Tier 1 cities to support 1000 Multi Brand Experience centres at least covering 100,000 villages in the rural areas in the next 5 years and is looking at raising Seed round  / Series –A to accelerate faster expansion plans. NayaGaadi is Govt of Karnataka Elevate 100 winner.

 

 

As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?

Automobile dealers and companies think e-commerce and online means and always discounts and it might not suit the automobile domain. What they failed to understand is how the business landscape is changing digital India and changing needs of the demanding consumers in India. People think automobile e-commerce is operationally intensive and India is not ready for it. This is one of the problems that needs to be addressed on a daily basis.

 

Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?

There are many players like cardekho, carwale, carTrade, bikedekho, zigwheels, OLX who are all classified players, while paytm who is into all payments and consumer goods play, droom is into second hand vehicles and also new vehicles. While none of them is focussed on ALL NEW VEHICLES and Rural focussed NayaGaadi is bridging the gap between the urban dealerships and rural automobile consumers. Additionally, NayaGaadi is an end to end transaction provider offering personalises service and delivery at the doorstep of the customer.

Unique Platform for India specific Automobile Industry:

NayaGaadi’s solution addresses the automobile needs of a rural consumer by connecting them to all brands, all categories of new vehicles under one platform. Its technology-driven marketplace connects dealers, automobile manufacturers, banks, financing companies and insurance companies and consumers. The platform facilitates test drives, vehicle loans, and insurance assistance and aids last mile delivery of the vehicle.

 

NayaGaadi’s unique platform consists of Online Marketplace, Rural Multi Brand Experience Centers and Rural Network Agent App. NayaGaadi’s Technology driven new retail business model separates from the general e-commerce models which are driven and supported by Investors cash discount model, whereas NayaGaadi model is both online and offline E-commerce combined with value-driven personalised service and delivery model.

 

For the buyer, NayaGaadi offers a platform that allows them to buy a new vehicle –autos, bikes, mopeds, cycles, cars, buses, passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and more –with a home delivery facility.

 

On the seller side, this platform provides an additional avenue to increase their customer base and sales volume. Also, it acts as a platform for launching new vehicles, apart from generic existing automobile brands, it supports new players for example – new age EV startups and mobility solutions. This way the New Age Ev startups reach their target audience within a short span of time.

 

Special Purpose Vehicles / Customization: Additionally, this platform also connects bodybuilders, fabricators, custom design specialists in the automobile sector with the new vehicle customization consumers for their needs. “This will help consumers get standardized service, cost and quality deliverables with simplicity as a key focus,” says Balaji.

 

 

How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it?

It’s always super difficult every day working with a limited set of resources, team, capital and keeping the focus on addressing the solution. Day revolves around interaction with customers, dealers, banks, partners and potential customers/investors. As a founder, the work-life balance is just a word to ignore and there is no time to waste. So Monday to Sunday is all working day for me. These days lot more busy travelling to different part of the state – rural areas to identify and set up the Rural experience centres and help assist them in day to day their operations and increase the experience centre base to make our model business lucrative and sustainable. Attracting talent is also a difficult one and it is a matter of concern. The seed capital will address some of the problems for faster growth.

 

 

Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you are looking to raise.

So far, we have utilised all our savings and also 10 Laks grant from the Govt of Karnataka as we are Elevate 100 winner. We are planning to raise 3-5 Crore for faster growth in the seed round and another 5-10 Million US Dollars for Series A round to expand beyond South India market.

 

 

What are the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?

In India, Online means discounts, that the strongest perception and also expectation from the people. We believe, people would soon understand online and e-commerce is all about discovery, pricing, availability, convenience and quick time to delivery and not just about discounts. We are trying to use Technology to address the lack of dealerships in 7 lakhs villages in India with the aid of the technology platform. Technology would be able to fill the gap between demography’s, bring efficiencies, experience to the people at the quickest and cheapest cost. NayaGaadi business is evolving around the technology capabilities with human capabilities.

 

 

What gets you excited about this company?

NayaGaadi is addressing a real problem for India. Additionally, we create micro entrepreneurs and rural employment in a sustainable manner. Our solution for Rural India and Automobile sector is the need of the hour for both the sector and consumers. We would be setting trend and disrupting the automobile sales models in the most efficient aggregator model and making the automobile and dealer companies life easier. Think New Vehicle. Think NayaGaadi is not too far away and we also believe NayaGaadi can become a household name in India going forward.

 

Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.

 

My day starts with a quick review of newspapers and has quick idea on what’s happening in the Indian automobile sectors. A quick check of emails, social handles before heading towards the office. In the office, responding to emails, follow up calls, tech work progress, content building work, follow up calls with Rural Multi-brand experience centres progress and help assist in their challenges.

 

Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?

NayaGaadi founders Balaji K and Sangeetha Thulasi are from a rural background with 30 + Yrs of IT experience. The IT couple is with engineering and management background. They worked with some of the top IT Companies like IBM, HP etc. In various roles. Our other team members are from marketing, operations and management background.

 

 

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