Burda leads $19m round for Malaysia's Carsome

Existing investors Gobi Partners, InnoVen Capital and Lumia Capital also contributed to the funding round. Carsome will use the new capital to grow its presence in Southeast Asia, primarily in Indonesia and Thailand, through localized marketing content. It will also introduce new products such as financing and warranties and improve its customer experience.

Founded in 2015, Carsome operates on a customer-to-business (C2B) model: its portal allows car owners to source bids for their vehicles from pre-screened commercial car dealers. The company facilitates the entire sale process including inspection, valuation, payment, and logistics.

Carsome employs over 150 staff in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand. More than 70% of its transactions in 2017 involved buyers and sellers in different cities, which the company sees as validating its business plan.

“Currently, Southeast Asia’s used car industry – estimated to be valued at over US$30 billion yearly – is still highly fragmented, inefficient and lacks transparency,” said Carsome co-founder Eric Cheng in a statement. “Carsome takes on these problems by providing a seamless and transparent online used car selling process that provides users an easier way to sell their cars to dealers nationwide in a fast, fair and free manner.”

Gobi first invested in Carsome in 2016, committing an undisclosed sum in a follow-on to the company’s $2 million Series A round led by Malaysian PE fund IdeaRiverRun with participation by 500 Startups and IMJ Investment Partners (now Spiral Ventures). The firm led another $6 million investment in Carsome last year with participation from Lumia, InnoVen, 500 Startups and Spiral.

Burda Principal opened its Singapore office last year, looking to support Southeast Asian technology companies, particularly in the Series B stage. Before opening the office the firm had already supported start-ups such as Thailand-based price comparison site Priceza and Vietnamese search engine Coc Coc.

It has also made LP investments in several Southeast Asia-focused venture funds, including Indonesia’s Kejora Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures, and Jungle Ventures.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Early-stage
• Malaysia
• Gobi Partners
• Innoven Capital
• automobiles
• TMT