Malaysian car marketplace Carsome raises $30m in Asia Partners-led round

Southeast Asian car-trading platform Carsome said that it has completed its US$30 million series D fundraising, led by Asia Partners.

Existing investors Burda Principal Investments and Ondine Capital also participated in the round.

Eric Cheng, co-founder and CEO of Carsome / Photo credit: Carsome

Carsome, which operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore, connects auto dealers with individuals who wish to sell their cars. The startup says that its platform trades an annualized 70,000 cars worth over US$600 million.

The fresh funds will be used to strengthen Carsome’s consumer-to-business ecommerce service and accelerate its new business-to-consumer offering, said co-founder and group CEO Eric Cheng. The company also plans to roll out a C2B and B2C integrated ecommerce platform for used cars.

This comes as Carsome’s clients “are increasingly purchasing cars to keep their families safe and adapt their businesses,” adds Cheng.

See also: Fast-growing Carro says it’s been profitable for nine months

Research firm GlobalData expects Southeast Asia’s used-car market to grow significantly post-Covid. Case in point: Sales of such vehicles went up in Malaysia as the government imposed movement restrictions to manage the spread of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Carsome says that it recorded its highest revenue in the third quarter of 2020, doubling its revenue from before the pandemic. It also claims to have achieved operational profitability as of October.

The startup competes with a number of players, including Carro in Singapore, BeliMobilGue in Indonesia, and Carmudi.

Indonesia’s BeliMobilGue received a US$30 million commitment from joint venture partner Frontier Car Group in August 2019. In October 2020, Carro secured S$150 million (US$110.5 million) in debt financing facilities, backed by Mitsubishi Corporation and MS&AD Ventures.