Roadside assistance service provider Cross Roads gets funding from Sixth Sense

In a first for India's venture fund, Sixth Sense (SSV) has announced an investment in Cross Roads, India's first and largest RSA player for all cars and two wheelers. The transaction marks the first entry of an institutional player in Cross Roads in a Series A financing round.

This transaction for SSV comes in quick succession of the first transaction done in ETHOS (India's largest luxury watch retailer) a couple of weeks back. SSV is India's first consumer centric domestic venture fund floated by Nikhil Vora (ex-Managing Director and Head Research of IDFC) and targets to raise Rs 250 crore in its maiden fund.

Cross Roads is India's largest Roadside Repair Assistance service provider for cars and two wheelers. Break down assistance service, 24x7; within 29 minutes of any vehicle breakdown. Cross Roads employs 500 people and services across 23 cities with self-owned/managed service network, attends to over 1200 road side repairs every day and has  handled over 3 million road side repairs/emergencies. Cross Roads is also the largest B2C player with nearly 2.5 lakh individual customers.

"Cross Roads fit in perfectly with SSV's philosophy of investing in the 'consumer of tomorrow'. We want to look at businesses which operate in large white spaces, run by first generation entrepreneurs, servicing the consumers imperative need with a strong technology backbone to scale. I find that in Cross Roads," said Nikhil Vora, Founder & CEO, Sixth Sense Ventures.

"By participating in Cross Roads, we are betting on the underlying trait of Indian customers who are ready to pay for convenience and peace of mind. We do believe that the Roadside Assistance space is extremely sticky and valuable globally and like the fact that unlike markets of US and Europe which are 100 per cent penetrated, India stands at just 1 per cent. We wish to replicate the success of Cross Roads in the NCR to pan India within the next 3-5 years," said Harish Lakhera, CEO, Cross Roads.

"The faith reposed by SSV will propel us to size up our presence pan-India and participate in a market which is at the cusp of sustained growth. We have built the RSA market in India and will put our 15 years of learnings to fast track growth across the country. We see opportunities to burst through the B2C market and also work with marquee B2B players - be it OEMs or Government. We will optimise and scale our technology backbone, whilst continuing out investments in infrastructure for future growth. Our vision at Cross Roads is to ensure that every car owner leaves his house with the comfort that he will never ever be stranded due to a vehicle break down on road," Lakhera added further.

Further Financial terms of this deal has not been disclosed. Nikhil Vora will join the board of Cross Roads.