New Delhi, Feb 19 (KNN) With an idea to bring the automobile maintenance experience at the doorstep of the customer, Garagely, a Delhi based start-up happens to be India’s first virtual car maintenance company.  The founders of Garagely realized the deplorable scenario of the automobile maintenance and decided to bring in transparency, convenience and quality to change the face of the industry.

Regarded as the simplest, convenient and reliable method of car maintenance, Garagely has made an effort to change the picture of ‘conventional garage’.

In conversation with Kirti Prakash, the Co-founder of Garagely, KNN learned more about the virtual garage and its journey so far:

1. Please tell us something about your start-up. What was the idea behind starting 'Garagely'?

Garagely is a doorstep car maintenance company. What we do is we bring car maintenance at customer’s doorstep. We provide a host of services like routine service, major service, brake pad replacement, engine tuning, Battery Jumpstart, battery replacement, car spa and other services.

The reasons why we started working on Garagely were because we wanted to bring transparency in the industry and deliver a solid high-quality experience to our customers while keeping the costs low.

We have been delivering our services in parts of Delhi and NCR for some time and are growing at a steady pace.

2. What is so unique about your business that provides you a competitive advantage? 

The reason why we are unique is because we don’t own assets. We are a marketplace that runs into delivering car services through our vendors and partners. By coming onto our platform mechanics can make more money and it makes our business model highly scalable.

3. What is the potential market size for your product today? And what it is the growth rate?

An IBEF report quotes “The Indian automotive sector has the potential to generate up to USD 300 billion in annual revenue by 2026, create 65 million additional jobs and contribute over 12 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product.” As the automobile market increases, so does the servicing sector and its demand.

4. How do you advertise your business?

We generally do a 360 degree offline and online approach with our business and it has been working great for us.

5. What risks have you faced till now and what issues still exist?

Our current issue is spreading awareness amongst customers and making them realise that car service can be done anywhere, be it home or office.

6. What is the current size of your start-up, in terms of employees, as well as, annual turnover?

We are currently a team of 5 people and are adding more people in the operations department, but our current need is for a tech co-founder

7. Entrepreneurs have certain cash flow projections and forecast analysis before starting a business. How much investment did you require at the initial stage of building up your business and how did you manage to acquire the required funds?

We have started with our own personal money and are currently bootstrapped. We are looking to raise funds and have been in talks with few investors for it.

8. Do you think the current policy structure is favourable for start-up ventures in India?

To be honest, there are few things that have improved, but the majority of the norms and policies still remain the same. I believe it will take some time for things to improve.

9. If you had one piece of advice for someone just starting out, what would it be?

Start building something that you care about not because you want to raise money and announce it to the world.

(KNN/ Jyoti)