Singapore automotive platform Motorist raising up to $2.9m to rev up regional expansion

Ever left a note on the windscreen of a car to inform its owner that their vehicle was obstructing a pathway or to alert them that they left their headlights on? Or perhaps you found some footage on your car’s dashboard camera that might be relevant to the affected parties but haven’t been able to reach out?

Automotive platform Motorist may just have devised an easier way of contacting fellow drivers.

Last month, the Singapore-based startup launched a car-to-car chat function on its mobile app that allows users to reach each other directly via their car plate numbers. Called Drivers Connect, the new feature is part of Motorist’s broader push towards owning the entire value chain of the car ownership cycle – buy, sell, drive, and maintain – after previously focusing on car transacting.

Backed by JobsCentral co-founders Lim Der Shing and Huang Shao-Ning, along with Zopim co-founder Royston Tay, the already-profitable company is now looking to raise US$2.2 million to US$2.9 million in a series A round. The funds will bankroll its expansion into Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia as well as its efforts to scale its existing Malaysia business and build up a full suite of services in Singapore.

Motorist has processed over 14,000 vehicle transactions worth over S$277 million (US$204 million) since it began operations in 2015. At 300 to 400 vehicles transacted each month, Motorist’s current volume of consumer-to-business (C2B) auctions – or cars transacted between owners and dealerships – in Singapore is four times its closest competitor, based on the startup’s “closest intel” as of January 2019, CEO and founder Damian Sia tells Tech in Asia.

Completing the vehicle ownership life cycle

With more than 11,500 monthly active users and a 75% open rate for its mobile notifications, Motorist claims that its mobile app – which was rolled out in March this year – is ahead of Carousell’s automotive platform, Singapore Press Holdings-owned SGCarMart, wholesale vehicle marketplace Carro and Malaysian-grown Carsome in terms of user engagement rates.

Motorist also claims its range of automotive services – including car transacting, certificate of entitlement renewals, traffic information, and road assist solutions – exceeds that of other players in the market.

Competitor landscape among automotive platforms / Photo credit: Motorist

Cars in Singapore typically exchange hands after four years of ownership, according to one industry player’s estimate. Although maintenance services such as car servicing, repairs, and grooming are “not huge revenue generators” and the fees associated per deal are generally “very small,” these diverse offerings help providers expand their revenue streams, keep vehicles in their ecosystem, and increase the chance of repeat purchases down the line.

“Even though SGCarMart is the [top] today in terms of car listings, people go there to see stuff but they don’t really transact on the platform – there’s no stickiness,’ Sia explains.

Motorist isn’t the only automotive marketplace that’s branching into complementary services as a way to retain users on its platform. Carro, for example, now offers vehicle financing, insurance, subscription-based rental, workshop services, and roadside assistance, CEO Aaron Tan told Tech in Asia in an earlier interview.

Despite Motorist’s diversification plans, it still considers car sales as its most important growth driver – at least in the near term. The startup handled US$66 million in C2B car transactions year-to-date, with the vertical also making up almost 80% of S$1.26 million (US$927,000) in gross profits in the first half of this year. Consumer-to-consumer car transactions, certificate of entitlement renewals, and motor insurance made up the remaining 20%.

“Buy, sell, drive, maintain”

Banking on data