Malaysia-headquartered integrated car e-commerce platform Carsome Group announced Thursday the acquisition of the remaining 80.1 percent stake in iCar Asia from the Catcha Group and other shareholders of iCar Asia, a listings and content automotive platform in Southeast Asia.
Carsome said in a statement that upon the completion of the acquisition, Carsome became the sole shareholder of iCar Asia.
Carsome is the market leader in the online used car buying and selling platform across Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, while iCar Asia is the leading listings and content automotive platform across the same markets. Carsome and iCar Asia, combined, offer an integrated automotive ecosystem – for dealers to source, advertise and sell cars and for consumers to research, sell and buy cars – in a region that trades over $55 billion worth of automobiles annually.
Carsome Co-founder and group Chief Executive Officer Eric Cheng said that the company has been collaborating with iCar Asia since July 2021.
“We are pleased with the smooth completion of this acquisition. This partnership will enable us to further augment our offerings across discovery, consideration, purchase and fulfillment, covering the entire auto ecosystem anchored on our core values of trust, transparency and technology,” said Cheng.
According to the statement, the acquisition is expected to allow Carsome to provide more diversified solutions and experience across the buying and selling value chain to more dealers and consumers in the key markets.
The expanded suite of solutions will also offer consumers an end-to-end, one-stop experience that covers the entire car ownership journey – from search, transaction, finance and insurance to after-sales services.
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.
Last month, the group announced the completion of its $290 million Series E round, increasing the company’s valuation to approximately $1.7 billion.
The financing round was jointly led by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), 65 Equity Partners (65EP) and Seatown Private Capital Master Fund (Seatown), along with investors such as Mediatek, Sunway, Gokongwei Group, YTL Group, and Taiwan Mobile.