The fund will help in strategic planning and execution
The Malaysian enterprise for trading users’ cars, Carsome has raised $50 million in the Series C round of financing. The funds will be used to strategically place the company in Southeast Asia to counter the competition. This is one essential step to grow its business further into the future.
This round of financing was done with the collaboration of MUFG Innovation Partners, the corporate venture firm and a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Daiwa PI Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, and Ondine Capital. Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures are the existing investors which also contributed to this round. This has brought the total fundraised to date to $85 million.
Carsome is one of the leading car trading platforms in Southeast Asia. The user-friendly platform links the owner of the used cars to the dealers who want to sell their cars at the best possible price. The company operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand and it has 40,000 cars and has done more than $300 million trade through its platform.
Online auction of used cars for competitive bidding
The company still new, engages a workforce of 700 professionals and has a wide network of 6,000 dealers. It also finances dealers and sellers to smooth out the process of used car buying. The company relies upon the online auction model to influence sales. The cars get listed on the website a day after they were handed over by the owner and concluding all the checks.
The online auction system makes it possible for the seller to get more money. This is not possible in other one-dimensional models. Eric Cheng, the Chief Executive of Carsome said, “We want to establish a brand and a standard that advocates trust, transparency, and consistency of service and quality assurance across the region that people and businesses can rely on to make their purchasing decisions.”
