EV Financing: Need Of The Hour?

In an interview with BW Businessworld, Sumit Chhazed, Co-Founder, OTO talks about his company and EV Financing:

Your entrepreneurial journey began with CredR. How did OTO come into being?

Hailing from a Tier 3 city, I have always been fascinated by two-wheelers and have seen them around me all my life. My entrepreneurial journey in the Indian auto sector started with me cofounding CredR in 2015 as the most trusted platform for buying and selling used two-wheelers after having an awful experience of buying a Pulsar bike for myself just after graduating from IIT Bombay. 

By scaling CredR up to more than 300 team members and successfully completing more than 70,000 transactions, we build India’s largest used two-wheeler platform. From my experience in the field and interactions with various brands, I realised that even new vehicle buying and financing is still stuck in the 80s, although the consumer has evolved significantly in terms of behaviour and desires in the last few decades.

That’s when it struck me that there must be a platform to provide an enriching buying and financing experience to buyers. I was exhilarated to have found this opportunity and that’s how OTO was born, co-founded by my partner Harsh in 2018. OTO is now a leading commerce-enabled finance platform for two-wheelers and has partnered with all major brands to provide a ten times simplified experience for buying, financing and owning two-wheelers for millions of Indians.

Where do you see the next level of growth for OTO come from? 

Digital transformation and omnichannel take the lead. The millennials and GenZ who are accustomed to the convenience and speedy process of digitalisation go for online purchase of two-wheelers through our app and website, whereas GenX and the remaining part of the population opt for the brick-and-mortar model. 

This is the trend that we have observed. In the coming years, we are expecting to see a boom in demand for purchases via our ecommerce platform as there is a tendency among people to switch to that model owing to its handiness.

Also, EV financing will pick up as the industry grows. Flexible financing models allow buyers to choose the tenure and EMI amount they feel is right for them thereby enabling them to make the right decision.