Published: October 10, 2026
StartupFeed Quick Take
- Cars24 opened its Grand Startup Challenge on October 9, 2026, with a Rs 1 crore prize pool across four tracks.
- Applications close on November 10, 2026 at 11:59 pm IST, a deadline Cars24 says it will not extend.
- Only India-registered startups that have raised under Rs 50 crore can apply; the finale is in New Delhi in January 2027.
Gurugram-based Cars24 has opened its first Grand Startup Challenge, a Rs 1 crore contest for early-stage Indian founders, closing on November 10.
The Cars24 Startup Challenge opened for entries on October 9. Applications close on November 10, 2026 at 11:59 pm, and the company says it will not extend the deadline.
The Rs 1 crore is one prize pool, shared among the winning startups across four tracks, not a single founder’s award.
Who Can Apply to the Cars24 Startup Challenge
Any startup incorporated in India, as a private limited company or an LLP, with at least one founder working on it full time, can apply. Startups that have raised more than Rs 50 crore are not eligible.
The four tracks are lending and fintech, mobility and road safety, supply chain, and sovereign AI. Each has a published problem brief, and applicants pick the one closest to what they build.
Every entry first clears eight eligibility checks. Two reviewers then score it on four equal measures: track fit, product evidence, team and traction. Shortlisted teams are interviewed through November.
What Winners Get
Winners get more than cash. Top teams run live pilots inside Cars24, and the Grand Champion reaches production deployment within 90 days.
The Grand Champion also joins Cars24 AI Labs and the Bharat Deeptech Cup. Shortlisted teams get API access, compute credits and datasets to build and test their work.
Cars24 is a Gurugram used-car marketplace whose India revenue was Rs 6,233 crore in FY25, down about 10% from a year earlier. The company is preparing for an IPO.
The challenge is part of a Cars24 agreement with DPIIT, signed in early August as one of five such startup agreements. Startup India, MeitY Startup Hub and the Startup Policy Forum are partners.
Vikram Chopra, who co-founded and runs Cars24, framed it as paying forward the company’s own start.
“Cars24 was once a young company that just needed a real environment to prove its ideas. Today, we can offer that environment to the next generation.”
Vikram Chopra, co-founder and chief executive, Cars24. From the company statement, October 10, 2026.
What this means for you: Founders in lending, mobility, supply chain or AI, at startups registered in India that have raised under Rs 50 crore, can enter. Applications close on November 10, 2026 at 11:59 pm, and Cars24 will not extend it, so register and submit before then.
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