Zoomcar drives into Vietnam’s car rental market

Zoomcar, an India-based car rental startup, has announced that it will soon launch its operations in Vietnam.

The company has also roped in Kiet Pham, who previously held senior management positions in Gojek and Oyo, as its country head. Pham will spearhead efforts to establish Zoomcar as the “first-to-market car-sharing platform” in Vietnam, the company said in a statement.

Zoomcar CEO Greg Moran / Photo credit: Zoomcar

“I look forward to establishing Zoomcar in Vietnam and working closely with the Zoomcar team to further enhance the brand’s market trajectory with my contributions,” Pham said in the statement.

Zoomcar’s foray into the Vietnamese market follows its expansion into other markets such as Egypt and the Philippines.

The rollout is also part of Zoomcar’s plan to tap the Southeast Asia market, where it plans to invest more than US$100 million in the next two to three years. The amount of investment, however, could increase over time as the startup is striving to “dramatically ramp up” its presence in the region, the company told Tech in Asia in August.

See also: Indian car rental startup Zoomcar plans $100m bet in Southeast Asia

The latest move comes close on the heels of the company’s US$92 million fundraise led by SternAegis Ventures. The round also saw participation from several family offices and institutional investors.

Zoomcar said it would use the capital to grow its car-sharing marketplace in India and other markets across Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Some other objectives include investment into engineering and data science platforms, IoT solutions, and machine learning applications, among others.

The startup, which has 10,000 cars on its platform, is also looking to set up a new office in San Francisco ahead of its US listing. The company had said it was looking to raise a “nine-digit million number” in US dollars from the listing, which may happen in the next few months.