Carsome Gets Series D Funding 424 Billion Rupiah, Immediately Expands Business Model

Digital platform for the sale of used cars, Carsome today (08/12) announced that it has booked a series D funding of $30 million or equivalent to 424 billion Rupiah. Investors involved include Asia Partners, Burda Principal Investments and Ondine Capital. So far to be all-equity financing largest in the automotive industry online in South East Asia.

A year earlier, to be precise in early December 2019, Carsome announced the acquisition of $50 million series C funding. This round was supported by MUFG Innovation Partners, Daiwa PI Partners, Endeavor Catalyst, Ondine Capital, as well as investors in previous rounds including Gobi Partners and Convergence Ventures.

Carsome Co-Founder & Group CEO Eric Cheng said, "We will use this funding to strengthen our existing business model, namely C2B, and accelerate the realization of our new business model, namely B2C. We look forward to launching the first C2B and B2C in Southeast Asia for a used car and a far superior retail experience."

During Covid-19, Eric claims, his company managed to increase business revenue by 2x compared to the period before the pandemic. As of November 2020 or five years since its founding, Carsome has facilitated around 100 used car sales. There has been a drastic increase stemming from consumer behavior in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

"Carsome has made a profit as of October 2020, faster than previously projected [..] We believe this new series D funding will help in future mergers and acquisitions, to further consolidate its supply chain," added Carsome CFO Juliet Zhu.

Carsome services facilitate users to sell their used cars; to then be offered to partners Dealer used car seller. In the purchasing process, they also carry out comprehensive car inspections at 175 points. Model similar services in Indonesia also adopted by other players such as OLX Auto and Carro.

OLX Autos (formerly BeliMobilGue) also received a $30 million funding round in August 2019; continued its $10 million series A funding raised in the previous year.

Business model development

The issue of expanding the business model outside of C2B has indeed been conveyed several times by Carsome, including in Indonesia. This mission is reinforced by the official statement of Eric, who will soon bring the B2C model to his service. This scheme allows users to buy used cars from partners Dealer registered in the application.

On the occasion of the media meeting, General Manager of Carsome Indonesia, Delly Nugraha, said that the addition of a business model was being discussed internally by Carsome. He conveys, C2B2C model to be applied including in Indonesia.

This ambition is none other than the background of a very large market potential. A recent Momentum Works study said that the total value of used car deals was $600 million; Carsome said it had managed to donate 1% in Southeast Asia. Markets in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand account for about 80% of the regional market value.

Several digital platform developers in the world have also gained huge traction and valuation. For example Cars24 in India, after getting a series E funding of $200 million they managed to win the title unicorn. Kavak has the same status in Mexico; even in the United States the Vroom platform managed to raise $468 million from its initial public offering in June 2020.