Cars24's Used Car CEO Himanshu Ratnoo Quits, Co-Founder Vikram Chopra Takes Direct Charge
Cars24 is set for a senior leadership change in its core used car business. Himanshu Ratnoo, who currently heads the company’s used car operations as CEO, is expected to step down after a stint of more than five years at the firm. For now, Cars24 co-founder and global CEO Vikram Chopra will take direct charge of the used car business, with the India leadership team reporting to him.
Ratnoo joined Cars24 in 2019 and rose through the ranks over the years. He was elevated to lead the domestic used car business in July 2024, putting him in charge of the company’s biggest and most closely watched vertical. His exit, and the decision to move the reporting line directly to Chopra, signals that the company wants tighter founder oversight at a time when execution and numbers matter more than narratives.
This transition lands at a sensitive moment for Cars24. The company has publicly indicated it is preparing for an IPO, with a targeted listing window that has been spoken about in the next six to twelve months.
When a company starts lining up for a public market debut, the pressure shifts from growth-at-speed to growth-with-control. Leadership structures also tend to get simpler, with fewer layers between the business and the person ultimately accountable for performance.
In that context, having the co-founder directly manage the core used car operations is a straightforward move. It reduces handoffs, speeds up decisions, and keeps the business aligned to whatever milestones are being chased internally. It can also indicate a “back to basics” phase, where the company wants to tighten processes that impact profitability, such as pricing discipline, sourcing quality, reconditioning costs, warranty exposure, returns, and working capital locked in inventory.
Cars24 has been signalling a stronger focus on improving financial performance ahead of a potential listing. In the first half of FY2026, the company reported adjusted net revenue of Rs 651 crore, up 18 percent year on year. Over the same period, it also cut its adjusted EBITDA loss by 36 percent year on year to Rs 162 crore.
Those numbers point to a company trying to show it can scale while also reducing cash burn. For a used car platform, that usually means sweating operations harder: turning cars faster, keeping refurb costs in check, tightening underwriting where loans are involved, and ensuring warranties and guarantees are priced correctly. It is the kind of operational grind where founder attention can make a noticeable difference, especially when the business is approaching the scrutiny that comes with public market investors.
Cars24 has been one of the most heavily funded names in the used car space, having raised over $1.3 billion since it was founded in 2015. The company became a unicorn in 2020, and the expectations that come with that tag have only increased since then. With that scale comes a different set of demands: proving that the business can generate predictable margins, not just headline volume.
In recent months, Cars24 has also been pushing newer ownership propositions to strengthen its pitch, including a “lifetime warranty” style offering on select vehicles and conditions as per its communication and marketing.
Moves like these are typically aimed at improving trust and reducing hesitation in used car purchases, but they also create a new cost line that needs careful monitoring. Warranty products can be a differentiator, but only if claims and coverage are tightly managed.