Shivanshu Makkar
Builder
Cars24
Shivanshu Makkar is CFO India at Cars24, an AI-native platform transforming how vehicles are bought, sold, fi nanced, and owned across India, UAE, and Australia. His remit spans fi nance, corporate development, M&A, and strategic fi nance, with a focus on driving shareholder value through both organic and inorganic growth while helping prepare the organisation for its next phase of scale and public market readiness.
At Cars24, Shivanshu has worked across several critical areas of the business, including car quality and refurbishment, customer experience, product, retail sales, expansion, and fi nance. His journey refl ects the company’s builder culture, where ownership follows the problem rather than a predefi ned role.
A qualifi ed CA and an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce and IIT Ahmedabad, Shivanshu began his career at Deloitte and Cairn Oil & Gas before joining McKinsey & Company, where he worked on shareholder-value creation and complex problem-solving across India and the United States.
He believes fi nance is evolving from a reporting function into a real-time, AI-native capability that drives decision-making and growth.
CAREER:
Builder | Cars24 | Present
At Cars24, Shivanshu has built his career by taking ownership of the company’s most important challenges, regardless of function or title. Over the years, he has worked across car quality and refurbishment, customer experience, product, retail sales, expansion, and, today, fi nance, corporate development, and M&A. His journey refl ects Cars24’s builder culture, where ownership follows the problem and impact matters more than hierarchy.
Today, he focuses on driving shareholder value through organic and inorganic growth while helping prepare the organisation for an IPO.
McKinsey & Company
Worked on shareholder-value creation and complex problem solving for clients across pharmaceuticals, IT services, and automotive sectors, spanning India and the United States.
Deloitte & Cairn India
Began his career in governance and strategy, building the foundations in rigour, controls, and structured problem-solving that continue to shape his leadership approach today.
WHY Cars24:
Shivanshu’s connection with cars began long before his professional career. At the age of six, he accompanied his father to buy the family’s fi rst “big” car, a milestone he still remembers vividly today. That experience shaped his belief in the emotional signifi cance of vehicle ownership and ultimately drew him to Cars24.
For Shivanshu, Cars24 is an opportunity to help millions of Indians experience that same sense of aspiration, freedom, and achievement. A lifelong automobile enthusiast, he remains deeply passionate about cars and is known for being able to identify vehicle models from their headlights alone.
PERSPECTIVE:
Shivanshu believes the fi nance function is being rebuilt from the ground up. Traditionally viewed as a reporting and control function, he sees fi nance evolving into a real-time, AI-native capability that actively shapes business decisions, capital allocation, and growth.
At Cars24, he is focused on building that future by reimagining how fi nance operates, what technology can automate, and where human judgment creates the greatest value. In his view, the fi nance organisation of the future will be smaller, sharper, and more deeply integrated with the business, allowing teams to focus on strategy, decision-making, and long-term value creation.
He believes enduring businesses are built by disciplined teams that treat fi nance not as a back-office function but as a core driver of growth and innovation.
BEYOND WORK:
A sportsperson at heart, Shivanshu played hockey at the national level as a goalkeeper, a position that demands composure under pressure, anticipation, and accountability. As the last line of defense, he learned the importance of staying calm in high-stakes situations, reading the game before it unfolds, and taking ownership of outcomes.
These lessons continue to shape his approach to leadership, decision-making, and building teams today.
