Automo Pockets Early Stage Funding, Strengthens Luxury Vehicle Rental Business in Indonesia

After launching the service in Jakarta, a luxury vehicle rental platform Automo just announced early stage funding acquisition (seed funding) worth 1 billion Rupiah from SG startups. The Singapore-based startup founded by Charles Lin also managed to get grant from Enterprise Singapore worth 300 million Rupiah.

Apart from funding, Automo also announced expansion in three new cities including Yogyakarta, Bandung and Bali.

"Currently apart from Jakarta, Automo has been present in three popular tourist cities in Indonesia. Starting from Jakarta, we are still focused on developing the team, and plan to add other new cities," said Charles.

Automo also plans to add variants of tourist transportation services for the upper middle class, including private jets, helicopters, and yacht.

"We have also established partnerships with Transwisata and CeoJetset to increase the choice of premium tourist transportation rentals. Meanwhile, for cars, we also increase the choice of international brands such as Mercedes S Class, Rolls Royce, to Limousine," said Charles.

Especially for the most favorite tourist city in Indonesia, namely Bali, Automo also provides motorbike transportation rentals. Adjusting the habits and needs of foreign tourists to local tourists visiting the island of Bali.

Automo's plans and targets

For payments, Automo still provides credit card options. However, to increase payment options for users, Automo is currently building a local company (PT), so that later it can be integrated with local payment providers in Indonesia. It is planned to be finalized by the end of 2018.

"Besides bank transfer, we also plan to provide installment payment options to customers," said Charles.

In addition to adding new locations in popular tourist cities, Automo is also still developing technology in Singapore. Automo also continues to negotiate and discuss with hotels and travel agents to be able to connect Automo's services to foreign and local tourists.

"We are still continuing to add partnerships with vendors in Singapore and Indonesia. One example is CeoJetset customers who rent planes from Jakarta to Bali, they can also rent Mercedes S Class cars in Bali through Automo with CeoJetset as a partner vendor. Later partners will receive referral fees, said Charles.

Thus, Automo directly wants to invite more partners to provide rental options and can be monetized directly by related partners. This also applies to all travel agents in Bali.

"Currently, we have around 50 vendor partners in Indonesia as well as in Singapore," Charles concluded.