Carmudi, an online marketplace, has received $10 million (over P511 million) worth of new funding, the bulk of which the frim will use to further improve its Philippine operations at a time when new cars will shoulder higher taxes.
Considered the Asia’s leading car classifieds site, Carmudi raised the funding last year from HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Tengelmann Ventures and Asia Pacific Internet Group (APACIG).
In 2014, it raised its first round of $10 million, followed by $25 million in 2015.
It has since established itself as market leader in both Philippines and Indonesia. Carmudi – a market platform for used and new cars – is also available in Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
In a roundtable discussion on Monday, the managing director of Carmudi Philippines, Cholo Syquia, told reporters that the bulk of the fund would go to Philippine operations, whose consumers have different “needs.”
“We get the bigger part of the $10 million than Indoesia and Sri Lanka but not the amount hasnt been broken down yet,” he said. “A lot of it will be used for further developing the platform to localize it more in the Asian market. It would also be used with Filipino consumers in mind.”
He said that compared to other markets, Filipinos who use Carmudi care more about the price of the car being sold, as opposed to the brand or other factors. He estimated that three-fourths of their online inventory are accounted for by used cars, which to date reached 30,000 units.
This comes as cars will be slapped with higher prices this year, following the higher excise tax rates imposed by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) law.
Asked if he expects the Filipino market to further patronize used cards, he said this could “potentially” happen.
According to Syquia, the Carmudi site sees a million users every month – and the traffic has been increasing since it started in late 2013.
Car manufacturers have reported higher sales in 2017 since consumers wanted to save up on costs before the Train law took effect.
But Syquia said: “So far, we haven’t seen the effect yet. So, it’s too soon to say if it’s gonna affect consumer behavior.” /atm