Carsome Used Car Marketplace Raises 260 Billion Funding to Strengthen Growth in Indonesia and Thailand

Used car marketplace Carsome announced the acquisition of a $19 million Series B (approximately IDR 261 billion) led by Burda Principal Investments. The funds will be used to strengthen its market presence and growth in Indonesia and Thailand. Both are the largest automotive markets in Southeast Asia with total sales of 3,6 million vehicles annually. Past investors, namely Gobi Partners, InnoVen Capital, and Lumia Capital, also participated in this round.

The funding for Carsome is the third for the Southeast Asian used car marketplace earlier this year after BeliMobilGue secured funding in January 50 billion Rupiah and Carmudi got 137 billion Rupiah. This confirms the attractiveness of this market for technological disruption. The total annual value of the Southeast Asian used car market is estimated at $30 billion (over 400 trillion Rupiah).

Regionally, Carsome claims its total transaction value has quadrupled compared to January 2017. They have also increased the number of employees to more than 150 people in four countries to support this rapid business growth.

To DailySocial, Co-Founder and CEO Carsome Eric Cheng said Carsome's operations in Indonesia have been present in Indonesia since last year. Eric said that his party has local partners who build the foundation and have an understanding of the local automotive market.

Unlike BeliMobilGue, which requires inspections to be carried out at inspection centers, Carsome currently manages the inspection process in various places that consumers prefer, including at home. However, Eric said his party would start providing inspection centers in various areas in the Greater Jakarta area (and other cities further this year), because he realized the presence of inspection centers would increase brand awareness. Thus the seller and has a choice against this inspection activity.

Furthermore, regarding the inspection process, Eric said, "Our inspection team received intensive training for three weeks before being deployed to serve car sales. Our inspections were very thorough but fast, very efficient because they only took one hour. After that through the car's mobile application. will be available to offer to all dealers. When an offer is accepted, we facilitate the transfer of ownership and direct payment. This process [we claim] is fast, fair and free, to ensure car sellers enjoy a hassle-free car sales process. complicated."

In Indonesia, Carsome will focus first on the Jadebotabek market and will follow other big cities later this year.

"Since Indonesia is one of Carsome's key markets, we will allocate a large portion of the funds [we earn] to support growth. We believe we can become the market leader in Indonesia. The funds will be used to improve operations and increase marketing efforts to ensure Carsome as a 'new habit' to sell cars," concluded Eric.