Carsome makes strategic investment in Indonesian offline car auction firm

Carsome, a Malaysian car-trading platform, announced that it has acquired an equity stake in PT Universal Collection, an Indonesia-based offline car and motorcycle auction company. However, it did not disclose the size of the deal.

The company aims to double its automotive transaction volumes in Indonesia after this investment, which marks its first capital injection in Southeast Asia this year. Carsome also has plans to make several strategic investments and major merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in the near future.

The investment, Carsome claims, will make it the largest omnichannel car ecommerce platform in the region that offers both online and offline transactions.

Eric Cheng, Carsome’s co-founder and Group CEO / Photo credit: Carsome

Universal Collection sells used cars at auction. The company has branches in five cities in Indonesia – Jakarta, South Tangerang, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Malang – and sold close to 30,000 vehicles last year.

With its investment, Carsome can get more diverse inventory for its dealer-partners from Universal Collection. The auction company’s suppliers of used cars and motorcycles, meanwhile, will have access to a wider pool of demand through Carsome.

As of April 2021, Carsome conducts over 9,000 used-car transactions per month, with annualized revenue at around US$800 million. It is on track to achieve US$1 billion in revenue this year.

Delly Nugraha, country head of Carsome Indonesia, has also been appointed as Universal Collection’s president director, said the statement.