Automotive marketplace Carro adds US$30M to Series B round; acquires Indonesia’s Jualo.com
Carro, a Singapore-headquartered wholesale automotive marketplace, announced today it has raised an additional US$30 million on top of its last US$60 million raise, from new investors including SoftBank Ventures Asia, EDBI, US-based charity Dietrich Foundation, NCORE Ventures, and Hanwha Asset Management.
Existing investors, including Insignia Ventures, B Capital Group, Singtel Innov8, Golden Gate Ventures, and Alpha JWC, also joined the round.
With this, the company’s total investments raised to date has exceeded US$100 million.
The fresh capital will be used to further its expansion across Southeast Asia, starting with the acquisition of Jualo.com, an online C2C marketplace platform.
“Our acquisition of Jualo.com will further boost the reach of our proprietary technology platform in Southeast Asia, especially as Indonesia is the region’s largest automotive market,” said Aaron Tan, CEO and Founder of Carro.
Founded in 2013, Jualo.com helps private and professional sellers trade new and used goods in over 300 categories, including cars, motorcycles, property, fashion, and electronics. It also enables users to post job adverts.
Jualo.com deals with goods being traded across all 34 of Indonesia’s provinces. It claims it attracts over four million users per month and facilitated transactions worth over US$1 billion in 2018. Pedro Principe, CEO of Jualo.com, said: “Our business models are complementary in many aspects and this acquisition further drives our shared vision of empowering Indonesians with a safe and trusted marketplace.”
Over the past year, Carro has expanded aggressively in Indonesia and Thailand and is now present in over 30 cities across three countries. It claims to have grown by 100 per cent month-on-month in both markets. Over 4,000 vehicles are transacted monthly on Carro in both Indonesia and Thailand.
Founded in 2015, Carro is a subscription-based car service, which enables consumers to select a plan and drive off with a car of their choice without the hassle of traditional car ownership. Carro rolled out this innovative service to cater to today’s generation of drivers who wish to enjoy the convenience of owning a car without needing to worry about annual depreciation and unexpected expenses such as repairs, roadside assistance and insurance premiums.
The subscription service is currently available in four plans: Daily, Roomy, Fancy and Luxury. With the service, subscribers can pay a flat monthly fee that includes all costs associated with car ownership — such as insurance, road tax, warranty, 24-hour assistance, and maintenance costs. At the end of the term, customers can return the car.
The latest round brings Carro’s total investment to US$75 million. The company raised US$12 million in March 2017 to kickstart its lending service and US$3.5 million in June, 2016.