Malaysia-based integrated car e-commerce platform Carsome Group announced Monday the completion of its $290 million Series E round, increasing the company’s valuation to approximately $1.7 billion.
This new financing further solidifies Carsome’s position as the leading integrated e-commerce auto platform in Southeast Asia, Carsome said in a statement.
According to the statement, the latest financing round was jointly led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), 65 Equity Partners (65EP) and Seatown Private Capital Master Fund (Seatown).
The round also saw strong participation from investors such as Mediatek, Sunway, Gokongwei Group, YTL Group, and Taiwan Mobile.
Carsome said it plans to use the proceeds raised in this round of financing to accelerate investment in people, product, technology, data capability, infrastructure, and regional expansion of its retail brand, Carsome Certified, across key markets in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
Founded in 2015, Carsome provides end-to-end solutions to consumers and used car dealers, from car inspection to ownership transfer to financing, promising a service that is trusted, convenient and efficient. It transacts more than 100,000 cars on an annualized basis, which translates to around $1 billion in revenue. It has expanded into Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.
Meanwhile, QIA is the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar that invests and manages the state reserve funds. Founded in 2005, it is among the largest and most active sovereign wealth funds globally. It invests across a wide range of asset classes and regions as well as in partnership with leading institutions around the world to build a global and diversified investment portfolio with a long-term perspective that can deliver sustainable returns and contribute to the prosperity of the State of Qatar.
65EP is an independently managed wholly-owned investment platform of Temasek which focuses on providing equity and structured capital solutions to established companies with regional or global aspirations, in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. In Singapore, the strategy of 65EP is to provide capital solutions to local enterprises with fundamentally sound businesses and help them expand regionally or transform strategically. It will also invest in leading companies and new economy businesses in Singapore and the region, ahead of their eventual listing in Singapore.
SeaTown is a close-end fund focused on private equity investments managed by SeaTown Holdings International.
SeaTown Holdings International is a Singapore-based investment manager focused on alternative, absolute return strategies. With over $6 billion of assets under management, SeaTown Holdings International manages multi-asset and public credit strategies through open-end funds as well as private investments strategies in closed-end funds. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seviora Holdings and indirectly owned by Temasek Holdings.
Malaysia-based Carsome raises $300M from Temasek-backed funds, QIA – report