#Asia Malaysia-based car portal Carsome zips into US$2M Series A

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It will use newly-raised capital to fund expansion into new markets, ramp up marketing efforts and hire more talent

Eric Cheng (left) and Teoh Jiun Ee (right), founders of Carsome

Eric Cheng (left) and Teoh Jiun Ee (right), founders of Carsome

Malaysia-based automotive portal Carsome announced today that it has raised US$2 million in a Series A round led by existing Malaysian investor IdeaRiverRun with participation from IMJ Investment Partners and another existing investor 500 Startups.

It will use the majority of this capital to fund expansion into two new markets, Indonesia and Thailand. The rest of it will be funnelled into ramping up marketing efforts to boost its branding, and hire new talent in the operations team.

Currently Carsome has 500 active dealers across Malaysia, Australia and Singapore. It aims to increase this to 1,000 across all markets by the end of the year.

It also claims to have a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) exceeding US$5 million, and plans to grow it by 10-fold this year.

Also Read: CarPal leverages existing cars and drivers to meet on-demand delivery needs

Last August, it grabbed US$350,000 in a seed round led by 500 Startups and IdeaRiverRun.

“In just 6 months [since the last fund raising round], we have developed Carsome into a formidable car-trading platform and have grown our services to include many aspects of the car trading process chain. As a result, we now have a portal that caters to the varying needs of car buyers and sellers in the region,” said Eric Cheng, CEO & Co-founder, Carsome, in an official press release.

Carsome began life in February 2015 as an exhaustive vehicle price comparison site; enabling users to make offers and receive proposals and quotations via the platform. Since then, it has evolved to offer direct car selling services, aided by trained inspectors who provide transparent valuations.

e27 has reached out to Carsome for more information.

Also Read: 77 per cent of drivers carpool to save money: RYDE survey

The post Malaysia-based car portal Carsome zips into US$2M Series A appeared first on e27.

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