Earlier in the 2000s, Narain Karthikeyan brought laurels to the country as he became the 1st Indian to compete in an F1 race. Now two decades later, Karthikeyan is the founder of a successful startup that is co-owned by auto giant TVS Motors.

Karthikeyan co-founded DriveX with his childhood friend Christopher Anand Sargunam in 2020. The Coimbatore-based startup is dedicated to offering accessible mobility solutions to individuals. The startup now operates in over 22 Indian cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Darbhanga, Indore and Patna.

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In 2022, the startup caught the interest of TVS Motors. Who went on to acquire a 48.27% stake in pre-owned two-wheeler platform for ₹85.41 crore. Talking about the company back then TVS Motors’ Sudarshan Venu had said, "Narain and his team have built a unique platform that can scale up quickly. DriveX has the vision to bring a change in this segment by building trust, assurance, and transparency through end-to-end, high-quality products and customer experience through innovative solutions.”

Starting from the racetrack, Karthikeyan has now also managed to make his space in the Indian startup space in just a short amount of time.

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