Carsome, a leading Southeast Asian used-car marketplace, has closed a USD 50 million Series C round to consolidate its position in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, as well as potentially expand to other cities in the region.
The financing round — a combination of equity and debt investments — was funded by new investors that include MUFG Innovation Partners, Daiwa PI Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, and Ondine Capital. Existing investors Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures also participated in the round.
Founded in 2015, Carsome claims that about 40,000 cars are transacted through its platform annually, totalling more than US$300 million in transaction value, excluding all loan and financing deployments. The startup provides a one-stop platform for car sellers and dealers, from inspection to ownership transfer, instant payment, and paperwork.
To date, Carsome has a coverage of more than 6,000 dealers across over 50 cities in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore on its platform and over 12,000 monthly inspections at its inspection centers across Southeast Asia.
Funding will be used to help consolidate Carsome’s key markets, which are Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, with expansion into more cities in Southeast Asia, and to accelerate the rollout of financial product offerings for dealers and consumers across different countries. This will likely be driven by subsidiaries of MUFG in the region, which include major banks in Indonesia and Thailand.
Eric Cheng, co-founder and CEO of Carsome, said that more than four million used cars are transacted annually in Southeast Asia, meaning the market potential is still huge. Carsome is operationally profitable in Malaysia and aims for profitability in the remaining markets by end 2020.
Before this round, Carsome raised a total of USD 27.4 million in five rounds, according to data on Crunchbase. This included a USD19 million in Series B funding in March 2018 led by Burda Principal Investments, alongside Gobi Partners, Convergence Ventures, among others and an extended round of USD8 million Series B in August 2018.
In an interview with DealStreetAsia, Cheng said Carsome is planning to enter the Philippines in 2020 as competition in the used-car marketplace in Southeast Asia is heating up. Its competitor, Singapore-based Carro, raised a USD 90million Series B in August and acquired Indonesia’s Jualo.com in August and car bidding platform myTukar in Malaysia in September.
Another Singaporean powerhouse is Carousell, which also has Carousell Motors, a one-stop classifieds marketplace for buying and selling cars.