CARSOME Group Inc has announced the closing of its latest fundraising round, bringing the Group’s liquidity to approximately US$200 million.
The latest funding round saw broad-based participation from CARSOME’s existing investors, including 65 Equity Partners, Seatown Private Capital Master Fund, Qatar Investment Authority, Gobi Partners, and Asia Partners.
It also attracted a long-term debt facility from a new investor, EvolutionX Debt Capital, a growth-stage debt financing platform that provides an alternative source of financing to technology companies in Asia (www.evolutionx.com.sg).
In 2022, the Group’s revenue grew 250% to US$1.5 billion, with the newly established regional retail line CARSOME Certified contributing 35% of total revenue.
In 1Q23, CARSOME hit an operational profitability milestone for the first time on the back of significant growth in trade margin, which doubled compared to the same period last year.
Notably, more than 80% of the trade margin came from transaction margins, leaving a huge potential upside for ancillary revenue, especially given its increasing focus on ecosystem offerings, including Financing, Insurance, and Aftersales.
CARSOME Service Centers (CSC), as an example of after-sales offerings, have seen more than 100% month-over-month growth since its launch at the end of last year and are expected to reach nationwide coverage in Malaysia by the end of 3Q23.
CARSOME’s Co-Founder and Group CEO, Eric Cheng, said, “We have spent the last eight years building a more trusted way for customers to transact within Southeast Asia’s used car industry.
“Our comfortable liquidity position and strong backing from both existing and new investors place us on solid footing to deliver the world’s first integrated car ownership ecosystem, going beyond just buying and selling cars to include ancillary services across the whole ownership lifecycle.
“I wish to thank all our investors for their continued confidence in our vision and capabilities as we steer the company toward profitability as a Group.”
EvolutionX’s investment in CARSOME marks its first in Southeast Asia. Rahul Shah, Partner of EvolutionX said, “We remain focused in supporting category-leading technology companies in our core markets in Asia which are backed by reputed long-term investors.
“We are excited by CARSOME’s continued focus towards achieving profitability during this year and believe that this collective capital raise will optimize its capital structure and improve the financial strength of the company to support its continued journey towards sustainable profitable growth.”
