Carro Announces Series C Funding and Becomes a Unicorn, “Car Marketplace” Competition Sharpens

Platform marketplace Carro's used car today (15/6) announced the acquisition of Series C funding of $360 million or equivalent to 5,1 trillion Rupiah. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, followed by a number of investors including East Ventures. With this additional investment, Carro states that it has reached the status of "unicorns", aka reaching a valuation of more than $1 billion.

This acquisition continues the funding that the company has successfully booked in the last few years. In 2020, Car get funding debt from a number of investors, following the series B round which closed in the first quarter of 2019. From a series of early-stage investments from 2015 to 2020, Carro managed to book a valuation of around $291 million.

The investors involved include Alpha JWC Ventures, B Capital Group, NCore Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, Mitsubishi Corp, and a number of others. SoftBank Group itself had previously invested in Carro in 2016 through SoftBank Ventures Asia.

Carro will use the fresh funds to strengthen its market position and expand its products in the markets of Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Carro will also increase its financial services portfolio by expanding beyond in-house loan financing, as well as accelerating the development of AI capabilities.

Last April, team Carro Indonesia delivered that in Q1 2021 their services managed to record total sales of used car units of above 100% compared to Q4 2020. As for the business as a whole, as of March 2021 Carro claims to have posted revenue growth of more than 2,5x and continued its positive EBITDA position for the second year successively.

The next round, according to the confession founder to e27, the company will consider go public. It is said that the plan will be finalized in the next 18-24 months.

Within its group of companies, Carro also oversees several digital platforms Genie (Singapore), myTukar (Malaysia), and Jualo (Indonesia).

Market competition

In the category of buying (C2B) and selling (B2C) used cars, Carro competes directly with Carsome -- both are regional players who also have business bases in Indonesia and a number of countries.

The business model is almost the same, for C2B they buy consumer cars instantly by conducting thorough inspections. The company provides checkpoints at strategic locations -- while purchase requests can be made via the website. The purchased cars are then sold to car dealership owners for re-marketing.

As for the B2C model, the cars that were successfully purchased and inspected were re-sold through their digital platform. The unique value that is trying to be presented is the result of inspection, considering that the goods being sold are used. They also work with financial institutions to peddle credit schemes.

Based on an analysis of site visits in Indonesia and Malaysia, so far Carsome is superior to Carro. In each country they operate different sites, such as in Indonesia: Carsome.id and Carro.id; as well as in Malaysia: Carsome.my and myTukar.com.

Carro vs Carsome stats in Indonesia:

myTukar vs Carsome stats in Malaysia:

On the funding side, Carsome at the end of 2020 only booked a series D funding round from a number of investors. From seed round until the latest round obtained Carsome's estimated valuation has been at $250 million. Endeavor and the Mitsubishi unit are involved in financing Carsome and Carro.

Latest published news Deal Street Asiasaid that Carsome was in the process of securing more than $200 million in new funding -- and potentially bringing them into unicorn next.

According to data submitted by the company, in Q4 2020 Carsome managed to record the highest revenue, which was double the period before the pandemic. In addition, Carsome also managed to achieve group operational profitability in Q4 2020.

In Indonesia, there are also other players, namely OLX Autos (formerly BeliMobilGue) which has now been integrated with OLX's services. The main focus is more on buying cars from consumers -- although currently some of the products that have been inspected are also starting to be sold through OLX and other channels. online marketplace other.

Carro and Carsome also promote strategy online-to-offline by presenting outlets to assist the transaction process. Carro just inaugurated "Carro Automall Point" at the end of April 2021, now showroom The used car is already in three locations around Jabodetabek. While Carsome is also new inaugurated "Experience Center" in early April 2021. For its own inspection points, Carsome has covered 15 cities in Indonesia.