Being a mechanical and automation engineer from IP University, New Delhi and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, when Navneet Pratap Singh joined his father’s company Skylark Group back in 2008, it was evident that he would find a way to bring his passion for cars and technology to the fore.
Skylark back then was a Security Solutions company. It was Singh, who diversified his family business into EPC, highways operations and maintenance and utility management. And in 2015, with Abhijeet Singh, he founded GetCarXpert.
This Gurgaon-based car Service & Repairs Company aims to cater to the whopping 30 million car owners in the country. It offers a range of services such as scheduled service, running repairs, unexpected repairs, batteries, tyres, car care and insurance.
Singh said, “We realize savings for car owners by matching their needs to here to unutilized capacity at workshops. To assure quality, we are building enablers for the ecosystem: a spare parts supply chain, training, and IT/IoT tools. India has 30 million car owners who don’t have to grope around to find the best maintenance & repairs.”
GetCarXpert’s internet platform, GetcarXpert.com, helps car owners to access convenient and cost effective maintenance and repairs.
“Our workshops include authorized service centers and selective multi-brand workshops. It offers the Delhi NCR residents to easily avail services at any of its 35 managed workshops or partnered authorized service centers.”
He added, “GetCarXpert.com deputes a GetCarXpert.com Engineer at every workshop to ensure that quality services are delivered to the client. In essence, it becomes a one-point contact for both the customers and the service providers by procuring confirmed orders, managing customer care, post service follow-ups, billing and collecting payments.”
The total available market in India car repairs, including maintenance cost, repair, tyres, and insurance, is worth $10 billion. In the top 10 cities, which include Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Greater Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Lucknow, the service available market is worth $3.3 billion.
Singh says, “Operative only in the Delhi NCR region at the moment, we would be present in the top 10 cities (by car population) in the next 18 months. We want to address 2% of the value in these markets during that period ($70 million).”
As wide as the scope of the market, the expansion for GetCarXpert into other cities won’t be easy. They will face massive competition from similar services providing platforms like MeriCar.com, CarZippi, Bookmycarservice, Autoyaar, Clickgarage and many more.
Singh, however, believes that GetCarXpert will get their way out of it and make a difference. “We don’t merely connect the customer & the workshop like our competition. We care as a managed marketplace & take ownership of the service our service providers offer. We also offer a 60 day or 1,000 km warranty.”
He further adds, “The quality of workshops in our network is far better. We have closely verified each service provider on a variety of metrics: Infrastructure, equipment, technicians, management, and inclination to do a professional job. Our Growth rate & number of orders is far above the competition. The experience of our management team is another plus for it.”
GetCarXpert has served over 500 customers in a short span of 3 months. It plans to enter 10 new cities and develop a full suite of services over the next year, which will be offered through a workshop model. It also intends to create a full-service spare parts supply chain and a viable service line for taxi operators.
“We make money by charging service providers a commission fee ranging between 10% and 35% of transaction value. Currently, we are bootstrapped. We are in discussions with potential investors for our first round of investments.”
As Delhi entered into the second phase of the odd-even experiment, GetCarXpert.com, has initiated the Night Operation services to bring relief to the car owners from getting their odd car serviced on an even day and receive it back maintained for the next day. It will enable the car owners can to drop their car at GetCarXpert’s associated workshops in the evening and can get it back serviced next morning.
