Eric Cheng's startup Carsome is shaking up an industry that desperately needs it: used car sales
In the What Matters To Me series, a Generation T honouree describes what they do, why they do it, and why it matters
Eric Cheng has successfully disrupted the used car industry in Southeast Asia. Carsome, the Malaysia-based company he founded in 2015 with partner Teoh Jiun Ee, is the region’s biggest used car trading platform, employing more than 700 people. It connects buyers to car dealers, and transparently facilitates the entire process from inspection to valuation to transaction.
Approximately 40,000 cars are sold on the app annually—around one every ten minutes. With a December 2019 Series C funding round of US$50 million, Cheng is looking to increase that number and solidify Carsome's position as the number-one player in the region, while also expanding beyond Southeast Asia. Here, he describes his work in his own words.
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Many areas in the used car industry are largely underserved. We are driven to change this by expanding our services to cover the ecosystem. We want to create a holistic trading environment by offering more services, such as financing, warranty and insurance.
There has been an old perception in the car market that dealers and salesmen are always trying to rip you off or trick consumers by using the low ball technique – we want to instil transparency and bridge the trust gap in the market