Carmudi infuses $16 M to boost Philippine operations

MANILA, Philippines - Online vehicle marketplace Carmudi is injecting $16 million in fresh funds to bolster its operations in the Philippines.

The amount will be sourced from the $25 million the company raised earlier this year to strengthen operations in its markets in Asia and Latin America, Carmudi Philippines managing director Subir Lohani said in an interview yesterday.

“Over the next few years, out of the $25 million funding, $16 million is allocated for the Philippines,” said Lohani.

Lohani said the investment is expected to boost the company’s presence in the country which in turn would drive up revenues.

Before the year ends, Lohani said Carmudi plans to expand its operations to Mindanao and North Luzon by setting up more sales offices.

With the expansion, he said the company’s revenues is seen growing at least 50 percent this year while listings are also targeted to increase to 30,000 to 35,000 from its present volume of 20,000.

“Revenues will be driven by new products that we’ll be implementing for the dealers, new marketing products,” Lohani said.

Carmudi currently serves as an online marketplace for buyers, sellers and dealers of cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles.

According to Lohani, 95 percent of the vehicle listings in Carmudi Philippines at present are pre-owned while the remaining five percent are brand new.

He said some 10,000 to 12,000 listings in the site are motorcycles, about 6,000 to 7,000 are cars, and the rest are commercial vehicles.

Carmudi, which was launched in October 2013, is part of the Rocket Internet portfolio which is also behind other online sites such as Lazada and Zalora.

Aside from the Philippines, it is also available in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and Zambia.

Lohani said the Philippines is one of Carmudi’s most important markets due to its growing Internet population.

“The Philippines is a very good market for business, especially for an online business,” Lohani said.