Carsome Invests in PT Universal Collection, Deepens Omnichannel Strategy

Platform car marketplace Carsome today (06/7) announced its investment in PT Universal Collection (PT UC). No mention of the amount given. It is known that PT UC is a car and motorcycle auction service company offline based in Jakarta, which already has branches in various regions, including Greater Jakarta, West Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, to Sumatra.

As a result of this agreement, Delly Nugraha as Country Head of Carsome Indonesia, appointed as President Director of PT Universal Collection.

This corporate action allows Carsome to expand its network reach, access to financial providers and lease, and has the potential to enter the motorcycle market. This initiative will also support the strategy omnichannel company, to offer services online-offline integrated.

"This investment is a strategic step for Carsome to open up more opportunities and networks. Through PT Universal Collection's access to used car providers in the market, partners Dealer Carsome will enjoy more diverse inventory and more choices. On the other hand, this will open access for PT Universal Collection suppliers to wider demand opportunities, thereby expanding their accessibility to the used car market," said Delly.

Previously, to support customer service, Carsome started presenting "Experience Center" to make it easier for consumers to make transactions. Starting with the C2B business model by buying used cars from consumers, now Carsome is also starting to explore the B2C model by selling various car variants directly to consumers. Previously, purchased products were only distributed to used car dealers in various cities.

Value proposition of service car marketplace is the existence of a team of professionals dedicated to carrying out inspections. The results of testing and analysis are reported transparently, so they have a direct effect on the selling/buying price of used cars. This concept also resulted in a relatively faster sales negotiation process from the consumer side.

The size of the used car market is quite tempting in Indonesia. Based on the "Carsome Consumer Survey" released in early 2021, Indonesian people's interest in buying and selling used cars in the second half of this year is still quite high. At least 64% of respondents expressed interest in buying a used car in the April-September 2021 period.

Besides Carsome, in the vertical car marketplace there are several other players including Carro who just announced his latest funding acquisition and add to list unicorn from Singapore. For local players, there is OLX Autos integrated with the OLX classifieds platform; also Garasi.id which is affiliated with online marketplace Blibli.

Carsome himself is also rumored to be in the middle completed fundraising its latest round with a target of $200 million — if successful, the company's valuation will also be boosted above $1 billion and have the opportunity to become unicorn Malaysia's first. At the end of 2020, Carsome has also booked series D funding of $30 million or the equivalent of 424 billion Rupiah.

In addition, options go public through SPAC and conventional IPOs are also said to have been included in the company's agenda this year.