SINGAPORE - Used car marketplace start-up Carro - the latest local start-up to join the billion-dollar club - is looking to deepen its presence in South-east Asia.
The Singapore-headquartered firm has just raised US$360 million (S$484.4 million) in its Series C funding round, which it said puts its valuation at over US$1 billion. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and included insurer MSIG and Indonesia-based funds like EV Growth.
This makes it Singapore's latest unicorn - a start-up valued at US$1 billion or more - joining the ranks of super-app Grab, co-working operator JustCo and software firm PatSnap.
Carro's war chest will be channelled towards growth in its existing markets - Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand - as well as expansion into new ones such as the Philippines and Vietnam.
Its platform allows consumers and businesses to buy and sell vehicles while also providing financing and insurance services.
Its investors include the Singapore Economic Development Board's investment arm EDBI, tech venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group.
Carro co-founder and chief executive Aaron Tan, 36, told The Straits Times in a video interview from Jakarta that the firm believes it has a homegrown advantage in the region and can navigate the landscape in South-east Asia better than other players coming to the market.
Mr Tan said a public listing is in the firm's plans, although it would need to grow significantly before it can do so, with a three-fold increase in annual revenue.
While it could look at an initial public offering in 18 to 24 months, this is subject to market conditions, he added, noting that the company is not under pressure to list as it is self-sustaining and Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) positive.
Going public is not just about the numbers, Mr Tan said, pointing to the importance of corporate governance and meeting quality standards.
But the fact that Carro has secured investments from some of the biggest public companies in the world, and cleared their compliance standards, is testament to how the company is well-managed, he added.
Besides its used car marketplace business, Carro also has a fintech subsidiary, Genie Financial Services, which is part of its overall vision of being an end-to-end service player. Carro, which was founded in 2015, has lending licences and brokers insurance across its four markets.
Mr Tan, who did a master's in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University under a scholarship from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said the start-up was initially focused on being a consumer-facing brand as it felt that strategy would allow it to grow more quickly.
"In the end, we needed to do both B2B (business-to-business), as well as some B2C (business-to-consumer) to get to where we are today," he said.
While Malaysia is seeing the highest revenue return among Carro's markets, Indonesia is considered the firm's largest market given that it has the most number of units transacted, Mr Tan pointed out.
Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, he would spend about two days in Indonesia and one to two days in Thailand every week, he said.
Carro has around 1,000 employees in a range of roles from sales to engineering, with about 150 based in Singapore.
Hiring has always been a challenge, Mr Tan said, noting that it has been competing for talent with larger and more established organisations.
It is in talks with local universities to develop technical expertise and expects to hire more data engineers and programmers in Singapore in the near future, he added.
SINGAPORE - Used car marketplace start-up Carro - the latest local start-up to join the billion-dollar club - is looking to deepen its presence in South-east Asia.
The Singapore-headquartered firm has just raised US$360 million (S$484.4 million) in its Series C funding round, which it said puts its valuation at over US$1 billion. The round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and included insurer MSIG and Indonesia-based funds like EV Growth.
This makes it Singapore's latest unicorn - a start-up valued at US$1 billion or more - joining the ranks of super-app Grab, co-working operator JustCo and software firm PatSnap.
Carro's war chest will be channelled towards growth in its existing markets - Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand - as well as expansion into new ones such as the Philippines and Vietnam.
Its platform allows consumers and businesses to buy and sell vehicles while also providing financing and insurance services.
Its investors include the Singapore Economic Development Board's investment arm EDBI, tech venture capital firm Insignia Ventures Partners and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's B Capital Group.
Carro co-founder and chief executive Aaron Tan, 36, told The Straits Times in a video interview from Jakarta that the firm believes it has a homegrown advantage in the region and can navigate the landscape in South-east Asia better than other players coming to the market.
Mr Tan said a public listing is in the firm's plans, although it would need to grow significantly before it can do so, with a three-fold increase in annual revenue.
While it could look at an initial public offering in 18 to 24 months, this is subject to market conditions, he added, noting that the company is not under pressure to list as it is self-sustaining and Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) positive.
Going public is not just about the numbers, Mr Tan said, pointing to the importance of corporate governance and meeting quality standards.
But the fact that Carro has secured investments from some of the biggest public companies in the world, and cleared their compliance standards, is testament to how the company is well-managed, he added.
Besides its used car marketplace business, Carro also has a fintech subsidiary, Genie Financial Services, which is part of its overall vision of being an end-to-end service player. Carro, which was founded in 2015, has lending licences and brokers insurance across its four markets.
Mr Tan, who did a master's in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University under a scholarship from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, said the start-up was initially focused on being a consumer-facing brand as it felt that strategy would allow it to grow more quickly.
"In the end, we needed to do both B2B (business-to-business), as well as some B2C (business-to-consumer) to get to where we are today," he said.
While Malaysia is seeing the highest revenue return among Carro's markets, Indonesia is considered the firm's largest market given that it has the most number of units transacted, Mr Tan pointed out.
Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, he would spend about two days in Indonesia and one to two days in Thailand every week, he said.
Carro has around 1,000 employees in a range of roles from sales to engineering, with about 150 based in Singapore.
Hiring has always been a challenge, Mr Tan said, noting that it has been competing for talent with larger and more established organisations.
It is in talks with local universities to develop technical expertise and expects to hire more data engineers and programmers in Singapore in the near future, he added.