Cars24, a used-vehicle marketplace headquartered in India, has reportedly shut down operations in Saudi Arabia and also in Indonesia, about a year after driving into the archipelago.
According to multiple media reports, the startup, which shut its operations in Indonesia earlier this week, is turning its focus on core markets such as India and Australia.
Reports quoted Cars24 co-founder and global CEO Vikram Chopra as saying that the decision to shutter its operations in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia was made after months of deliberation.
Cars24, a SoftBank- and Tencent-backed unicorn, launched its ASEAN expansion with Thailand in November 2021 and then forayed into Indonesia in 2022. It began operations in Australia and the United Arab Emirates in June 2021.
Founded in 2015 by Chopra, Gajendra Jangid, Ruchit Agarwal and Mehul Agrawal, the startup is an automobile marketplace that allows customers to sell used cars.
Cars24 raised $400 million in December 2021, just months after it raised $450 million in September of that year. The December funding lifted Cars24’s valuation to $3.3 billion.
Cars24 competes with the likes of Droom, CarDekho, and CarTrade in India and it drove into the unicorn club in late 2020 after raising $200 million in a Series E round at a valuation of over $1 billion.
Cars24’s Indonesia exit comes even as the country clocked the highest motor vehicle sales across the Southeast Asian region in 2022. According to data from Statisa, the country sold over one million vehicles last year.
In February, Indonesia-based used car marketplace Moladin received nearly $8 million from Singapore-based Ascend Capital. The company had last secured $95 million in a Series B round led by DST Global in May 2022.
Moladin, however, laid off 360 employees, or 11% of its total workforce, a move that it said will improve its long-term operational sustainability.
Moladin was not the only used car platform that downsized its members this year. In January, OLX Group was reported to be downsizing its Indonesia office and putting its automotive business on the market for sale, according to several sources aware of the matter.
