Malaysia car sale platform raises $2m Series A round

Additional participants in the round included 500 Startups and IMG Investment Partners, which committed $350,000 in seed funding last year. The company will use the new capital for marketing activities and staff expansion, and supporting its planned entry into Thailand and Indonesia.

Unlike customer-to-customer (C2C) online auction platforms, Carsome requires all transactions to involve a prescreened commercial dealer. Sellers can put their cars up for bids from multiple dealers, and buyers compare offers from competing dealers directly rather than bargaining with each one individually. The system is intended to eliminate fraud and help consumers get better deals.

Carsome claims to have reached a gross merchandise volume of $5 million since its seed round. It wants to reach $50 million - and achieve profitability - by the end of this year. By that time the company also hopes to have 1,000 active dealers on its portal, up from the 500 it has now.

Carsome's main competitor in Malaysia is Carlist, a division of Southeast Asia-focused used car auction site iCarAsia. ICarAsia is owned by the Catcha Group, a Malaysia-based media company that launched a VC unit in 2014.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Venture
• Malaysia
• TMT
• 500 Startups
• automobiles