Brief description of the product/ process/ service

CarBounty is a verified-buyer reverse-auction marketplace for new car purchases in India. The platform connects pre-qualified buyers with authorised dealers through a structured bidding process that delivers transparent, competitive pricing to the buyer and high-quality, sales-ready leads to the dealer. How it works for the buyer: A buyer signs up on the CarBounty platform and completes a verification flow that captures their KYC (PAN, mobile, address), declared budget, model and variant preference, location, and intended purchase timeline. Once verified, the buyer submits a bid request specifying the vehicle they want to purchase. The platform automatically routes this request to a curated set of 3-4 authorised dealers of the relevant brand within the buyer's geographic catchment area. Each dealer submits a single best bid response including the offered price, available variants, delivery timeline, and any value-added inclusions. The buyer reviews all bids in a structured side-by-side comparison and selects the winning dealer. They then complete the purchase at the winning dealer's showroom at the bid price. How it works for the dealer: Authorised new-car dealers across the partner brands (Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Tata Motors, Mahindra, Kia) onboard onto CarBounty through a partnership agreement. There is no upfront subscription or onboarding fee. Dealers receive bid requests from verified buyers in their catchment radius, respond with their best offer within a defined service-level commitment (acknowledgment within 30 minutes, full bid response within 4 business hours), and pay CarBounty a small success fee only when a transaction closes through the platform. The success fee is 0.25% of the closed transaction value, with defined floor and ceiling boundaries. Key product mechanics: The platform's core innovation is the combination of three mechanics that together solve the asymmetric-information problem in new-car retail. First, buyer verification ensures that only high-intent buyers with declared budget participate, eliminating the unqualified-lead problem that affects existing lead-generation platforms. Second, the reverse-auction format ensures that dealers compete on price rather than on volume-of-leads-received, driving genuine price competition. Third, geographic and brand-specific dealer matching keeps the dealer panel manageable (3-4 dealers per bid) so buyers can meaningfully compare offers rather than being flooded with calls from 20-30 dealers as on existing platforms. Adjacent services: Beyond the core marketplace, CarBounty offers integrated financial services through bank and NBFC partnerships (auto loan referrals) and IRDAI-licensed insurance distribution (motor insurance referrals to leading insurers). These services allow the verified buyer to complete the full purchase journey — vehicle selection, financing, and insurance — through a single trusted platform. CarBounty earns referral commissions from financial services partners on closed transactions in these categories. Launch and geography: CarBounty is launching in the National Capital Region in July 2026, focusing initially on the Gurgaon, Delhi, and Noida catchments. The launch cohort includes 40+ authorised dealers across the five partner brands. Geographic expansion to additional metro cities is planned for Year 2 based on operational learnings from the NCR launch. Technology: The platform is built as a mobile-first web and app product, with a buyer-facing application, a dealer-facing bid management interface, and an internal operations dashboard. The platform supports verified KYC, structured bid management, real-time notifications via WhatsApp and SMS, geographic matching algorithms, transaction attribution, and integration with bank and insurance partner APIs.