Carro, a Singapore-based wholesale automotive marketplace, has raised an additional USD 30 million in its ongoing Series B round, the company said in a statement.
New investors included companies like SoftBank Ventures Asia, government-linked global investor EDBI, Dietrich Foundation, NCORE Ventures, and Hanwha Asset Management.
The fresh funds will be used to accelerate its expansion across Southeast Asia.
Carro has already used part of the capital to acquire Jualo, an Indonesia-based consumer-to-consumer marketplace platform that attracted over 4 million users per month and facilitated over USD 1 billion in transactions in 2018, said Carro.
Jualo’s platform helps private and professional sellers trade new and used goods in over 300 categories including cars, property, fashion, and electronics across all 34 provinces in Indonesia. It also allows users to post job advertisements.
Jualo’s list of investors included venture funds like Alpha JWC Ventures, Openspace Ventures, and Kejora Ventures amongst others.
Carro on the other hand is an online marketplace for people to buy and sell used cars. Besides facilitating car transactions, Carro also offers after-sales services that a car owner might need throughout the vehicle’s lifespan such as car care services, roadside recovery services, and warranties.
Today, Carro operates in over 30 cities across Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. According to the statement, Carro’s expansion into Thailand and Indonesia in the past year has seen a 100% month-on-month growth in both markets.
Carro said the acquisition of Jualo.com will further boost the reach of its platform in Southeast Asia.
In a separate interview with KrASIA, Carro’s founder Aaron Tan said that the key to successfully expanding aggressively across the region is to “partner up with big players instead of competing against them.”
The latest investment brings the total amount Carro has raised in its Series B investment round to USD 90 million.
Carro previously secured USD 60 million from Softbank Ventures Korea, Insignia Ventures, B Capital Group, Singtel Innov8, Golden Gate Ventures, and Alpha JWC in the first phase of its Series B round last May.
Carro in some ways competes with the Naspers-backed OLX, a classifieds site that’s used for property and car listings, among other tings. OLX and Naspers footprint in the region also extends to C2C market place Carousell, which is headquartered in Singapore, and used car platform BeliMobilGue in Indonesia.
