UPDATE 2-India's Zoomcar seeks U.S. listing through $456 million SPAC deal

(Adds background, details on expansion)

Oct 13 (Reuters) - Indian car rental platform Zoomcar Inc said on Thursday it would go public in the United States through a blank-check merger valuing the combined company at $456 million including debt, as it seeks to expand into new markets.

The Bengaluru-based startup expects to list on the Nasdaq as Zoomcar Holdings Inc after being acquired by Innovative International Acquisition Corp in the first half of 2023.

Founded nearly a decade ago, Zoomcar allows car owners to put up their vehicles for hire by the hour or for longer, similar to San Francisco-based Turo Inc's business model.

Zoomcar had said in May that it expected to achieve profitability in India by the end of 2022, according to a report in the Economic Times newspaper.

"We expect to target future expansion opportunities in markets which include SE Asia, Latin America, MENA (Middle East and North Africa), and Sub-Saharan Africa," Zoomcar founder Greg Moran said in a statement on Thursday.

Proceeds from a trust account that contains about $235 million will provide the capital for general working purposes, the company said.

Zoomcar has more than 3 million active users and operates across India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Egypt. It has over 25,000 vehicles registered for use on its global car-sharing marketplace. (Reporting by Akash Sriram and Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Devika Syamnath)