At a valuation of Rs.100 crore ($12 million), the vehicle ownership platform Automoto has raised the first tranche of its extended pre-seed fundraising round. Venture Bridge led the round, and high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) and angel investors also participated.

According to a press release from the firm, the money will mostly be utilized to open Automoto's first experience center, which will act as a hub for integration for its digital products.

Sreeraj founded Automoto in 2018 with the goal of providing prompt automotive repair and service for a variety of vehicles, including commercial trucks and two-wheelers.

Offering value-added services like insurance, IoT integration, connected cars, a marketplace, and analytics for automotive insights are all part of its medium- to long-term strategy.

The Mumbai-based business is creating an enterprise management system for B2B2C customers with the goal of improving the Indian car ownership experience. These digital products will be integrated into the company's forthcoming experience center, enabling it to present its value propositions and the practicality of its solutions in real time.

Automoto aims to simplify and improve every step of the car lifecycle, from purchase and maintenance to customer interaction, in order to address the problems associated with vehicle ownership on a worldwide scale.

Recently, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek has added an extra $60 million to its upskilling and higher education firm Upgrad, valuing the company at a flat $2.25 billion.

They further said that Ronnie Screwvala, the founder and chairman of Upgrad, paid $20 million to acquire Bharti Enterprises' share of the company.