Beacon VC joins automotive marketplace unicorn Carro’s $360M Series C round

Carro, Southeast Asia’s largest automotive marketplace, today announced that it has raised US$360 million in a Series C funding round, making it the first automotive marketplace unicorn in Southeast Asia. Beacon VC (the corporate venture arm of Thailand’s Kasikornbank) joined the round to support Kasikornbank’s drive to provide better financial services to consumers across Thailand.

“This is a huge milestone for us. We are grateful for the strong support from our investors, which reaffirms our belief in the transformative power of AI in the automotive industry to deliver an exceptional customer experience. As digitalization shapes the global landscape through new consumer habits and business practices, it is a very exciting time for an end-to-end online car marketplace like Carro.” said Aaron Tan, CEO, and Founder of Carro.

Carro will use the funds to strengthen its market position and expand its retail offering across Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore – markets that have seen significant growth in the past year. Carro will also enhance its portfolio of financial services by expanding beyond in-house loan financing, as well as accelerate development of its AI capabilities.

Carro provides a full-stack service for all aspects of car ownership and uses AI-powered technology to transform the car buying and selling experience. It has pioneered innovative services such as Singapore’s first contactless car purchase service, first car subscription service and the first region-wide behavior and usage-based car insurance. Carro closed its financial year ending March 2021 with over a 2.5x growth in revenue and continues to be EBITDA positive for the second year running. Carro was also named Asia Pacific’s fastest growing company in 2021 by The Financial Times and Statista.