Founded in 2015, Carro seeks to transform car sales for both private sellers and dealers.
Carro provides an in-house financing solution, after-sales services like Singapore’s first on-demand roadside recovery platform and Singapore’s first car subscription service.
Singapore-headquartered Carro has since expanded to Indonesia and Thailand. Across the three markets, Carro facilitated over US$500 million worth of transactions in 2018.
As of August 2019, Carro has raised over US$100 million from SoftBank Ventures Asia, EDBI Pte Ltd, Insignia Ventures Partners and B Capital Group.
Carro’s entry into Malaysia via myTukar signifies the latest step in the company’s regional expansion.
“Malaysia is one of the leading automotive markets and most digitally-savvy countries in Southeast Asia, so this was the next logical step for us after expanding in Indonesia and Thailand,” said Aaron Tan, CEO and Founder of Carro.
“Through myTukar we plan on working with thousands of dealers across Malaysia to catalyse the growth of the used car market. Over the next few years, we plan to triple their existing transaction volume to over US$500mil.”
Fong Hon Sum (left) with Aaron Tan.
Set up in 2017, myTukar is a Malaysian online car bidding platform that allows private sellers to schedule a vehicle inspection with a sales service agent.
Following which, the platform will facilitate a live bidding process amongst more than 1,500 dealers that myTukar currently works with nationwide.
myTukar aims to help car sellers to evaluate, inspect and sell their cars at higher values via the live bidding process that is fast, secure, transparent and free for all users.
In 2018, the company partnered with vehicle warranty provider Guard My Ride Sdn Bhd to offer up to six months’ warranty on vehicles sold via myTukar’s platform.
For used car dealers, myTukar offers quick and easy enrolment and bidding processes as well as financial assistance.
As of July 2019, myTukar has sold over 1,000 cars on its platform.
“Malaysia’s used car marketplace has been underperforming over the last decade, chiefly due to used car dealerships facing stagnating sales during this period. To grow their revenues, traditional dealerships here must embrace digital technology to reach a wider customer base,” said Fong Hon Sum, CEO and founder of myTukar.
Fong is an automotive sales veteran with nearly two decades of experience.
Starting his career in 2003 with automotive distributor Tan Chong Motor as a salesperson, where he stayed until 2013, Fong won the accolade of ‘Top Salesperson of the Year’ for five consecutive years – being singled out for his pioneering use of social media in his sales strategy.
After leaving Tan Chong Motor, Fong founded Cassa Auto – a Kuala Lumpur-based used car dealership – with just five used cars before quickly growing its business to more than 200 cars per month.
In 2017, Fong decided to establish myTukar and within six months of the company’s inception, Fong helped to raise around RM3 million from investors.
