Two-wheeler financing company OTO raises $6 million to offer services in 15 Indian cities

• The Series A round was led by Matrix Partners India, with partnership from Prime Venture Partners and others.
• OTO currently has its presence in 5 cities and plans to enter additional 15 cities with this funding round.
• OTO offers a leasing-like financing model for two-wheeler purchases, at 30% lower EMIs than traditional businesses.

Two-wheeler financing and buying platform OTO has raised $6 million in a funding round led by Matrix Partners to grow its user base in India.

The company has currently marked its presence in five cities — Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, and Mysore. It plans to use this funding to launch its services in 15 new cities, including Delhi, Nashik, Indore And Vijayawada.

It also plans to double its team size by March 2022 and hire aggressively across verticals like technology, product, marketing and operations.

OTO’s Series A round also witnessed participation from existing and new investors like Prime Venture Partners, 9 Unicorns and Better Capital. Angel investors like OfBusiness’ Asish Mohapatra, Livspace’s Ramakant Sharma, Cred’s Kunal Shah, GrowthStory.in’s K Ganesh and BharatPe’s Ashneer Grover and Suhail Sameer also participated in the round.

Founded in 2018 by Sumit Chhazed and Harsh Saruparia, OTO offers a leasing-like financing model for two-wheeler purchases. The company allows customers to buy a vehicle at an upfront payment like any other loan and pay an additional equated monthly instalment (EMI) on a monthly basis. The company claims that its EMIs are 30% lower than traditional options.

At the end of the leasing tenure, the customers have the option to either retain, return or upgrade their vehicles. Co-founder Chhazed told Business Insider if a customer buys a two-wheeler worth ₹40,000 from another financing solution, the EMI should be somewhere around ₹3800 monthly for a period of two years.

OTO, on the other hand, would provide the vehicle at ₹2500 EMI for a period of two years. At the end of the tenure the customer can choose to return the vehicle and pay nothing. They can also choose to pay the rest of the amount in installments and retain the vehicle or upgrade it.

Chhazed explained that newage customers like to upgrade or change their vehicle every two-three years, therefore returning the vehicle is a handy option for them. Besides this, many two wheelers buyers are individuals who have moved to other cities for better opportunities.

OTO partners with several non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) to provide more financing options to the customers. It also offers full auto lifecycle management ranging between credit underwriting to insurance, maintenance, and eventual resale of the vehicle.

“In the world’s largest 2-wheeler market (India), the consumer’s preference is changing – buying online, stretching their budget for quality and upgrading faster. OTO caters to this new consumer with a new model of buying, financing and ownership,” Vikram Vaidyanathan, managing director at Matrix India, told Business Insider.

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